A large number of people have been convinced that young people need
knowledge which will help them face the great problems of sex; but they
withhold their approval of the sex-education movement because they are
not satisfied that proper teachers exist. It is, therefore, evident
that we cannot make permanent progress by emphasizing the need of
sex-education unless we can give assurance that qualified teachers are
available.
[Sidenote: The teacher most important.]
The situation as regards teachers of sex-instruction is very different
from that of all other subjects concerning which young people should be
taught. We cannot safely plan the teaching regarding sex until we know
the teacher. This will be evident, I think, after some general
considerations concerning selection of teachers and some discussion of
problems such as the first teacher, teachers for classes, and some
undesirable teachers. The general rule should be, first, find the safe
and sure teacher and, second, select the facts and plan the lessons
that the chosen teacher may give effectively.
[Sidenote: Teachers of same sex for children.]
So far as young children are concerned, the needed instruction is so
general in character that the sex of the competent teacher is of little
importance, but the information that ought to prepare for and guide
through the mazes of adolescent youth should come to young people from
teachers of the same sex. If exceptions must be made rather than omit
instruction altogether, some very mature women may safely guide both
boys and girls through adolescence; but men, even physicians, should
not undertake instruction of adolescent young women, unless parents and
other mature people are present to help with attitude. That women may
well instruct boys I know, because the most impressive sex lecture I
ever heard was given by the late Dr. Mary Wood-Allen to the boys of the
freshman class when I was a college student. But note that I have said
"some very mature women." The fact is that I fear danger for some boys
if they are frankly instructed by attractive young women who are only
ten to fifteen years older than their pupils. Hence, I urge great
caution if there must be any exceptions to the general rule that
teachers and pupils should be of the same sex.
[Sidenote: Coeducational classes.]
I realize the difficulty of applying this rule in many high schools
where the foundations of sex-education are well laid on the biological
basis. There is no reason why the biological studies should not be
coeducational through nature-study and biology as far as the
development of frogs and birds and, in a general way, of mammals. In
fact, both of my textbooks, the "Applied Biology" and the "Introduction
to Biology," which emphasize reproduction of organisms more than other
high-school books, have been used throughout in coeducational classes.
However, these books stop where the problems of human life begin and
should be supplemented by lessons for sex-limited classes. There are
writers who suggest that segregation of the sexes for teaching
concerning human life may be at present a necessity because complete
frankness on sexual questions is certainly obstructed by tradition; but
we must not ignore the deep social reasons why, in general, there must
be maintained a certain amount of reserve between the sexes in the
consideration of some important problems of life. No educational theory
or practice can possibly alter the fundamental physical or psychical
relations of the sexes which nature seems to have fixed immutably.
[Sidenote: Married women as teachers.]
One other point that deserves attention in this connection is the
common statement that only married women, preferably mothers, can be
competent instructors of young women. This strikes me as more than
absurd. Personal experience is not always necessary for teaching in any
line. The greatest medical teachers have not had the diseases they
describe so clearly. The best elementary teachers and specialists on
the care of children are not always mothers; on the contrary, some of
these are men. The fact is that these teachers have learned, not from
personal experience, but from the great accumulations of scientific
knowledge of medicine, hygiene, and education. There is an abundance of
such knowledge relating to sex that may be clearly understood by bright
women who have no bi-personal knowledge of sex. Therefore, I believe
that it is nonsense to insist that only women with complete sexual
experiences can be efficient guides for other women.