[Sidenote: Sex in literature.]
In the world's best literature there is much that teaches important
lessons in the field of the larger sex-education. In the guise of love,
sex problems have always held the prominent place in all literature.
Many a great book teaches direct or positive lessons by holding up high
ideals for inspiration and imitation; but some of the most impressive
lessons are in negative form, especially in fiction that deals with the
tragedies of life.
[Sidenote: Religious books.]
As examples of literature of direct influence in helping many young
people solve the problems of sex, we think first of that which holds up
high ideals of personal purity, such as the Bible and other religious
books. There is no doubt that such literature has a tremendous
influence on many young people; but it has little influence on others,
probably in part because the somewhat mystical style of most religious
writings is meaningless to many people.
[Sidenote: Appeal of poetry.]
It is a fact that many young people who refuse to be interested in
religious literature may be influenced for sexual purity by the
emotional appeal of some general literature. This is especially true of
romantic poetry. I believe that the high "idealism" of love inspired by
Tennyson's "The Princess" and "Idylls of the King," by Longfellow's
"Evangeline" and "The Hanging of the Crane," by some of Shakespeare's
plays, and by other great poetry with similar themes has had and will
continue to have greater influence on the attitude and ethics of many
young people than all the formal sex-teaching that can be organized.
Hence, I believe that teachers of literature should be led to take
interest in the larger sex-education to the end that by selection and
interpretation of great masterpieces they may contribute in a valuable
way to the solution of some of the problems that have their center in
the deeper nature of sex.
[Sidenote: Importance of interpretation.]
Interpretation of literature by teachers is very important for the
purposes of sex-education of young people. As an example, take
Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," whose movement centers in the life
problems that turn around love. The average reader is likely to miss
the great lessons if the poem is not critically interpreted either by
living teachers or by such critical essays as those by Henry van Dyke
in his "Poetry of Tennyson" and Newell Dwight Hillis in his "Great
Books as Life-Teachers." Without interpretation "The Idylls" may teach
false as well as true lessons of life. Some of the Knights of the Round
Table (Galahad and Percivale) were worthy followers of the good and
pure King Arthur, and some of them (like Lancelot and Tristram and
Merlin) proved unable to live up to the vow of chastity to which Arthur
swore all his knights. And on the part of the ladies of Arthur's court,
there was purity and devotion and true womanhood in Elaine and Enid,
while Guinevere and Ettarre and Vivien were unchaste and faithless. In
fact, all phases of the relations of men and women in the struggles and
perplexities of life are pictured; and therefore it is important that a
well-trained teacher should be the guide and interpreter if the "Idylls
of the King" are to be read with the idea of understanding their true
bearings on life, which includes their contribution to the larger
sex-education.
I have used "The Idylls of the King" as an illustration because they
are so many-sided in sex problems; but much other great literature may
be made to help young people to high ideals of relationships between
men and women. I have emphasized the place of such literature in the
larger sex-education because I have come to believe that interpretation
of life either real or in great literature may have profound influence
in the development of one's philosophy of life. As a matter of
educational procedure insuring that young people will learn to
interpret life, especially those aspects that the larger sex-education
touches so definitely, there appears to be no more natural and
unobtrusive way of approach than that offered by the study of
literature. I am convinced that many teachers of literature may be
efficient workers in the cause of the larger sex-education,
supplementing the scientific teaching in the ethical lines where
science is admittedly weak, if not helpless. It is to be hoped that
numerous teachers will soon grasp this opportunity. If they will study
the sex-education movement in order to get its general bearings and
will teach the sex aspect of literature on a basis of high ideals of
life and love, we need have no fear as to the culmination of the
instruction which properly begins with study of the biological facts of
life in its sexual aspects and leads on and on to its climax in the
ethical aspects of the individual's sex life in relation to other
individuals, that is, to society.
[Sidenote: Not to be labeled "sex-education."]
I take it for granted that no teacher of literature who contributes to
sex-instruction will let the students know that the emphasis placed on
great life problems is part of a conspiracy of parents and educators to
give in the name of sex-education instruction that will help prepare
the individual for facing the problems. Here, as elsewhere, the young
people had better be left unaware that their elders are so interested
in giving them instruction regarding sex problems that they have
organized, for study of ways and means, a movement known as
sex-education.
[Sidenote: Sex tragedies of fiction.]
The abundant literature that points to the moral to be drawn from
sexual tragedies has doubtless influenced thousands of young people. I
have talked with many educated people who confessed to having been
profoundly influenced by such books as Eliot's "Adam Bede," Hawthorne's
"Scarlet Letter," Goethe's "Faust," Hardy's "Tess of the
d'Urbervilles." One might go on and compile an extensive bibliography,
for fiction of all languages of all times is full of the errors into
which insistent sex instincts have drawn men and women who were not
masters of themselves. All standard fiction in which sexual errors and
their penalties are associated may do good as a part of the larger
sex-education, but the teacher should make sure that the young readers
arrive at the correct interpretation.
[Sidenote: Fiction without a moral.]
Against that type of fiction which presents sex problems that do not
clearly "point a moral," the average so-called "problem novel" of
recent time, there should be general opposition by workers for the
larger sex-education. Many of the modern novels and magazine stories
seem to introduce sexual situations for the same reason that Boccaccio
did in some of his tales, namely, the attractiveness of lasciviousness.
Unlike the commendable novels, it is characteristic of the equivocal
ones that no penalty is demanded or paid and no moral conclusion is
suggested. In fact, the way is very often left open to an immoral
interpretation. All such literature certainly tends to work against the
aims of sex-education. Perhaps parents and teachers may cooperate to
keep much of this kind of literature out of the hands of young people,
but the safest procedure is in cultivating taste for literature that
does teach helpful lessons of life. If young people do read books and
magazines that seem to stand for uncertain morals, it is best that
parents and teachers should point out the moral interpretations.