I have selected for discussion the criticisms of several of the most
prominent people who have expressed opposition to the sex-education
movement. I think that all the important lines of arguments against the
movement are represented in the extracts that I have quoted. We have
seen that all of the criticisms have decidedly vulnerable points. Most
of them refer to the discarded sex-hygiene of ten years ago; but some
of them prove that the authors are quite ignorant of the sex problems
that must be faced by numerous young people.
[Sidenote: Criticisms important.]
With the hope of locating the weaknesses of sex-education, I have for
years examined carefully every criticism published, and it seems to me
thoroughly scientific to conclude that all the important criticisms
have not harmed the essentials of the sex-education movement; but, on
the contrary, have been helpful in forcing reconstruction. In fact, the
present-day conception of the larger sex-education must be credited to
the severe critics more than to the friends of the original narrow
movement for reducing venereal disease by hygienic instruction.