TEACHING PHASES: FOR BOYS
_By Harry H. Moore_
The adolescent boy is the hope of our race. He is the man in the making.
Whether he is to be a constructive force, a nonentity, or a destructive
force depends largely on influences during this period. In adolescence the
processes of destruction are quick and sudden. Statistics of reformatories
and prisons show that either crime itself or the moral breakdown which
leads to crime begins in boyhood. A study of the lives of great
constructive characters shows that their success was largely determined by
influences during this period. Certainly, there is no more important task
for our nation than the training of our boys.
Adolescence begins at puberty, the transition period during which the sex
functions come into full prominence. Its beginning is marked by great
physical changes. There are also mental and psychic changes. This fuller
development of sex means for the youth new power, new emotion, new
capacities for enjoyment of life. At this time the will should emerge as
an asset of character. The boy now desires more knowledge of the new world
in which he finds himself. He wants to see it by day and by night. He
wants to be physically active, or entertained. He belongs to some sort of
gang and is loyal to it. His is an age of hero worship.
If the knowledge and the entertainment he finds is wholesome, if the gang
is a good one, if the hero is a noble character, if, with emotion and new
powers, there is also a strong will, all goes well. But if these
influences are not helpful and the will is weak, the result may be quickly
disastrous.[41]
Inquiry into the lives of any considerable number of adolescent boys leads
one to believe that there exists what almost might be called a conspiracy
of silence, misinformation, and bad influence against most boys of this
age. Parents for the most part either evade or answer untruthfully the
questions of their six-, seven-, and eight-year-old boys regarding birth
and reproduction. From this time on, nearly all boys receive many false
and low ideas regarding sex, marriage, and the relationship between men
and women.
After the stork story, there come incorrect versions of reproduction from
boy companions. Then come notes at school, picture cards, comic weeklies,
quack advertisements, and unwholesome vaudeville acts. These destructive
influences come, for the most part, entirely unsolicited, in response to a
normal desire for knowledge and clean entertainment. Boys seldom go to
their first shows to see what is vulgar or sensual. They go for clean fun,
gymnastics, magicians, and other legitimate amusements. The unwholesome
features are thrust upon them.
As a result of these influences on the impressionable mind of the growing
boy, he comes to regard sex as low and vile instead of sacred. He acquires
a vulgar vocabulary which he necessarily uses in his thinking and
sometimes in his conversation. The silence and evasive answers of adults
withhold healthful knowledge and increase curiosity. Curiosity often
leads to investigation, which often results disastrously.
The specific evil results are of three kinds: (1) masturbation; (2)
needless mental suffering due largely to ignorance; (3) illicit
intercourse.
Masturbation is prevalent among boys. Two hundred and thirty-two replies
were received to a question asked college students regarding their
severest temptations of school days. Of these, one hundred and thirty-two
said that masturbation had been one of their severest temptations and one
hundred and thirty-one said they had yielded to it.[42] Similar inquiries
have brought similar results. The sum total of vitality lost to humanity
by this practice is great.
There is much needless mental suffering among boys and young men due to
ignorance and false ideas advanced by quacks. Groundless fear, brooding
anxiety, and despair sometimes start before adolescence and often last
into the twenties. Physical peculiarities of no consequence sometimes
cause boys to fear that they are abnormal. Unaware of the fact that
spontaneous nocturnal emissions are to be expected, many suffer mental
anguish. According to one writer, a single New York dealer had 3,000,000
"confidential" letters, "written to advertising medical companies and
doctors, mostly by youth with their heart's blood."[43] Large sums of
money are obtained by quacks everywhere for treating normal conditions.
Many men have applied to the Advisory Department of the Oregon State Board
of Health after years of worry. Although those who apply are no longer
boys, most of their troubles began in boyhood. A large proportion of the
suffering could have been avoided by simple instruction in sexual hygiene.
Social vice often occurs in adolescent boyhood, both as a direct result of
unmastered passion and as an indirect result of individual vice. In some
cases, the habits a boy forms in his early 'teens make him a subject of
venereal disease in later life. A doctor writes, "I am aware that it is
popularly supposed that self-abuse and sexual intercourse are
antagonistic--by many, the one is regarded as a necessary alternative of
the other. So far from being a protective, the former is a most powerful
provocative of the latter. According to my own observation, it is not the
strongly sexed, the most virile young men, who are most given to
licentiousness, but those whose organs have been rendered weak and
irritable from this unnatural exercise--in whom the habit of sensual
indulgence has been set up, and in whom self-control has not been
developed by exercise."[44] This combination of silence, misinformation,
and bad influence causes a damnable attitude of mind on the part of the
boy toward women, love, marriage, and the home.[45]
The experience of a Chicago business man with his sixteen-year-old son is
told in a recent popular magazine. Whether an actual occurrence or not, it
is typical of conditions in most any city.
I do not desire to convey the idea that our boy was a wicked boy. He
was not. He was just the average type of what we call the "upper
middle-class" boy. He was merely tuned to the low moral tone of the
city. Vice to him was not a monster of hideous mien. He had seen it
from childhood.... I knew that a greater part of his ideas on
patriotism, on women, on the sanctity of marriage were but reflections
of views he had heard expressed, often tritely and cleverly, and
cynicism born of hearing such things flaunted over the footlights or
dished out as "clever" in the newspapers.
In the father's earnest efforts to understand the remedy for the
situation, he is reminded of his own experience when he began life in the
city. He continues:--
The boy's words awakened memories. I recalled the sense of shocked and
shamed decency I felt when first I came to the city, a boy almost, and
fresh from the country; how I tossed in my bed trying to see as right
things that every one in the city appeared to accept as a matter of
course, but that, from earliest boyhood I had been taught to regard as
wicked. I could not for many months become accustomed to seeing
immodestly dressed women on or off the stage, or to hearing
half-veiled indecency flaunted from the stage, blazoned in the
newspapers, or used even in ordinary conversation. I could not get
used to ... scenes and actions directly forbidden as unforgivable at
home.[46]
We are horrified by certain vices, the public now and then cries out
against specific manifestations of lust, and sometimes it is with
difficulty that mobs are restrained from violence But about much of our
immorality there is an attractiveness that has made it acceptable and even
wins for it applause. The influence is there, and it is insidiously and
perniciously working itself into the minds of our boys Many commercialized
amusements now exploit the sex impulse. It is impossible to measure the
effects of such exploitation.
There are brighter pictures. Those who have intimate relation with
hundreds of boys learn to admire the American boy for his earnest desire
to be clean and strong and for his attitude toward the sacred things of
life. If we give the boy positive help, we may expect him to grow into
noble manhood. We would not remove him from all the evil in the world, but
we may expect a minimum of harm as a result of contact with evil. We may
not expect to keep him away from all foul talk; but we may make foul talk
disgust rather than attract him. The American boy is normally clean. If we
will do our part, he will respond.
William Holabird represents a type which may well be taken as an example
in sex education.
While chiefly known to the public as a golfer, Holabird was catcher on
the school baseball team, half-back on the eleven, held the gold medal
for the inter-class track meet, and, in fact, excelled in all athletic
sports. As a scholar he always ranked high. He was devotion itself to
his parents, his brothers and sisters, respectful to his elders, a
leader among his associates, and beloved by all who knew him; tall in
stature and muscled like a Greek god, with clear-cut, delicate,
refined, and manly features.... With a rare combination of strength
and gentleness accompanied by a bearing and life well illustrating "He
was one of nature's noblemen."... A splendid athlete, with a life
without a spot or stain, he was a natural leader and a model for all
the fellows in the school. The younger boys followed and imitated
him.... He hated everything false or unclean or vulgar. To us all, men
and boys alike, it was an inspiration to know him.[47]
Our standards for boys and men have been too low. Charles Wagner says, in
writing of youth and love:--
Chastity has a host of enemies.... These enemies are quick to throw at
your head, as an unanswerable argument, "He who tries to play the
angel, plays the fool."
But he continues:--
Many play the fool who have never tried to play the angel. They have
not fallen into the mud because they tried to fly too high, but
because they began too low down.... A society which permits license in
youth, and counsels it, degrades love.... Sin against love at its
base,--in youth,--and the life of the whole nation is torn, and
suffers immeasurably.... The rule of conduct here is chastity Every
infraction is a sin. Though this law may seem difficult and severe, it
is the only safe one. Morality without it is but rubbish.[48]
A start has been made. During the last decade, we have declared that we
must no longer have two standards of purity, one for the man and another
for the woman. We recognize a difference between the nature of the man and
the nature of the woman; but as our goal and as our standard for practical
life, we have abandoned "the double standard." This is a great advance,
for our young people as a whole measure up fairly well to standards which
society as a whole sets for them. It is entirely within reason to expect a
large majority of our boys to reach full maturity and marriage with an
absolutely clean record, as far as personal and social purity are
concerned. In fact, we should be constantly working toward a time when the
personally impure boy and the socially impure young man will be
eliminated. Both the men and the women of our nation must demand this.
There are many ways by which we may guide and help the adolescent. Only
the abnormal boy is not active and curious. If we do not provide wholesome
activity, boys are likely to find activity which is destructive in its
influence. Therefore, we must do far more than mitigate bad influences. We
must plan proper regimen. We must supply a steady succession of
constructive activities as well as definite instruction to satisfy
curiosity. No other course will do.
In the matter of regimen, wholesome food, sufficient sleep, proper
clothing, bathing, fresh air, and physical exercise are of great
importance. The life and energy and passion of the adolescent boy must not
be checked, but diverted into wholesome and constructive channels.
Excessive mental labor, a sedentary life, pernicious reading,
idleness, can transform into a tormenting and persistent desire that
which, without it would have been easily mastered. On the other hand,
a healthful regimen, energetic habits, amusements and physical fatigue
are diversions so useful that, thanks to them, the most critical years
pass by unnoticed.[49]
A daily cold shower, followed by a vigorous rubdown, is beneficial if the
boy reacts favorably to it. The bath, acts as a sedative.
The value of gymnasium work, track and field athletics, swimming, and
"hiking" is constantly demonstrated in the lives of American boys.
Athletics are to be recommended as possessing a positive prophylactic
value against the indulgence of sensual propensities. Physical
exercise serves as an outlet for the superabundant energy which might
otherwise be directed toward the sexual sphere. In the period of
"storm and stress" which characterizes pubescence and which often
leads to nervous perturbation and excitement ... there is no better
divertitive from sexual thoughts than active athletic exercises pushed
to the point of physical fatigue, as a relief to nerve tension.[50]
In addition, physical exercise tends to develop an ambition to excel, to
become physically strong and robust. With such an ambition, boys realize,
intuitively to a certain extent, that to succeed they must refrain from
vice. Physical exercise has a fourfold moral value: it substitutes
wholesome activity for vice; it serves as an outlet for excess of nervous
energy; it develops the will; it develops ambition to be virile. All
wholesome recreation is an enemy of impurity. Jane Addams says that
recreation is stronger than vice, and that recreation alone can stifle the
lust for vice.[51] Recreation which involves physical activity is the most
helpful to the adolescent boy.
The boy's companions are important. Emerson says, "You send your child to
the schoolmaster, but 'tis the schoolboys who educate him."[52] Books
which contain high ideals of manhood and also of womanhood are obviously
helpful, as are also dramas of this character. And finally those general
principles of moral and religious education must be used, without which
we can have no strong foundation for clean living.
If we have failed to give proper instruction previous to adolescence, we
now have a golden opportunity (and in thousands of cases, our last
opportunity) to save the adolescent to a life of purity. As a rule, he has
ideas of sex life which are, at least, unwholesome. Curiosity is at a high
pitch, and passion is likely to be strong. Nevertheless, the ambitions and
ideals of a boy at adolescence are high. He will fight to be clean if he
understands that clean living means the acquisition of strength. He would
rather have virility than anything else in the world.
As to method, let us deal with the boy as a creature with reason. The best
plan is to place before boys a standard of virile manhood, and then to
show how such a standard may be met by clean living. Real characters who
have achieved high standards of vigor should be shown as heroes worthy of
imitation. Lincoln is known by most adolescent boys to have been a man of
great physical strength. He was "a man without vices, even in his youth,
but full even in ripe age of the sap of virility."[53] The effect of
clean living upon nations may also be spoken of. Charles Kingsley writes
of the Teuton:[54]--
It was not the mere muscle of the Teuton which enabled him to crush
the decrepit and debauched slave nations.... It had given him more,
that purity of his: it had given him, as it may give you, gentlemen, a
calm and steady brain, and a free and loyal heart; the energy which
comes from self-restraint; and the spirit which shrinks from neither
God nor man, and feels it light to die for wife and child, for people
and for Queen.
Because thousands of our boys are now growing into manhood who will never
receive the advantages of such a plan as we hope will be worked out during
the next decade,--boys who are now at the danger point,--an emergency
exists that must be met in the best way possible. For these boys, we are
now forced to give single talks or short series of talks. Just what facts
should be mentioned in a talk to any particular group of boys is a matter
which must always be governed by the age, development, and environment of
the boys concerned.
The first task for a teacher or a speaker giving a single lesson or a
series of lessons is to set up a high standard of manhood. The lessons may
concern the development and the conservation of virility. The teacher may
explain that virility means not only muscular strength but endurance,
energy, will power, and courage; and that in addition to these, a true man
has chivalry,--he is concerned for the welfare of others, especially for
the safety of women and children. He must possess more than physical
prowess; he must possess human virtues or he is no better than a brute.
The need for the conservation of virility in the race as well as in the
individual should be explained. Boys should see that the conservation of
virility in men is of far more importance than the conservation of our
water-power or our mines,--that we owe a duty not only to ourselves, but
to the nation and to the next generation.
A statement somewhat like the following can then be made: "It is our duty
to pass on to the next generation at least a little more vitality than we
inherited from the past generation. It is, therefore, important that we
understand the main facts of reproduction, so that now we may live right
and make no mistakes which may cause us to reproduce inferior children
when we mature." The speaker may then describe the wonderful and beautiful
process of reproduction in plants, and explain that human reproduction is
a similar process.
Under the subject of the development of virility, much time should be
spent upon a discussion of various ways by which virility can be
developed. The relative values of various kinds of physical exercise,
proper eating, the value of fresh air and of sufficient rest should be
emphasized. It may then be said that in addition to these things an
important source of virility is the absorption of the secretions of
various glands by the blood.
The speaker may make a statement similar to this: "When our bodies were
designed, we were given reproductive organs for two different and distinct
purposes. We have referred to the second and final purpose of
reproduction. You already knew more or less about that. The earlier
function of the reproductive organs is not understood by most boys. It is
this: _the rebuilding of boys into men_. The first purpose and, in some
respects, the most important purpose of the reproductive organs is to
rebuild a boy into a man. It would be absolutely impossible for us to
become men were it not for these organs. I will explain this by three
illustrations."
These three illustrations are generally very effective: an explanation of
the influence of the thyroid gland upon development; a comparison of two
horses, one of which was castrated when a colt; and the effect of
castration upon boys in Oriental countries.
The speaker may then say that the testicles do two things: first,
manufacture the male germ cells, spermatozoa, which are the most highly
potentialized and highly energized portions of matter in all living
nature; and, second, secrete a substance that is absorbed by the blood,
giving tone to the muscle, power to the brain and strength to the nerves.
It should be made clear that this is one of the great sources of virility.
From the illustrations referred to, a boy is likely to draw conclusions
regarding the vital importance of the functions of the testicles and
regarding any possible misuse of them. It may be well at this point to use
a cross-section drawing showing the scrotum, the testicle, the seminal
vesicle, and the bladder.[55] Some teachers will consider it desirable to
add that some boys, who do not understand the high purposes of these
organs, misuse them; that when such boys realize their mistake, if they
stop absolutely and at once, nature comes to the rescue and restores
virility.
The talks should be essentially constructive. To warn boys against
horrible effects of masturbation and to tell them things not to do is a
poor method. It is far better to explain that by keeping clean a boy may
acquire virility. The boy can draw conclusions.
In referring to the normality of seminal emissions, it should be explained
that the fluid excreted by a nocturnal seminal emission comes from the
seminal vesicles up in the body. This will show that the loss of fluid
involved in a nocturnal emission is different from the loss caused by
masturbation.[56] In this connection, boys should be warned against quack
doctors; also against their advertisements which are often worded to scare
the ignorant.
The venereal diseases should be referred to in talks to adolescent boys.
In this connection, the four sex lies may be vigorously contradicted.
These are (1) that gonorrhea is no worse than a bad cold; (2) that sexual
intercourse is necessary for the preservation of health; (3) that
emissions are dangerous and lead to debility, lost manhood, and insanity;
and (4) that one standard of morality is right for men and another for
women.
It should be explained that although both animals and human beings are
endowed with the sex instinct, only human beings have the gift of control.
That the sex instinct is a great blessing, and not a curse, should be made
clear. It may be stated that various blessings are sometimes converted
into sources of destruction when not controlled. A spirited horse is a
source of great enjoyment, but if not controlled may maim us for life.
Fire is a great blessing and a great joy to us when we are camping by a
lake or in the mountains; but, beyond our control, it may cause forest
fires. Temper, the capacity for anger, is highly desirable; but it must be
controlled or murder may result. We must control the sex instinct, or it
may control us and sink us lower than the brutes. On the other hand, if we
control this instinct, we gain virility, a keener appreciation of the
beauties of life, and life itself becomes richer and fuller.
In conclusion, the appeal should be for clean living for the sake of
physical strength and vigor, not for one's own sake, but for the sake of
country and future wife and children.
The standard toward which we are working in sex education involves the
dissemination throughout the school curriculum of such information as we
now give in a single talk. In addition to such nature-study work and
simple biology and physiology and hygiene as should be included in the
lower grades, there should be instruction in biology and in personal
hygiene required for all upper-grammar and all high-school students, as
soon as well qualified teachers are available. In personal hygiene a
proper amount of sex hygiene should be incorporated; and with the
treatment of other diseases, gonorrhea and syphilis should be given
adequate attention; the idea of the whole plan being to place all these
matters in their proper setting, without undue emphasis on matters of sex.
Either (first) as a part of one of these courses or (second) as a part of
some other general course, or (third) as a separate course, the following
subjects should be considered:--
1. What is virility?
(a) Virility and the next generation.
(b) Virility and our nation.
(c) Types of virility.
2. Muscle, exercise, and virility.
(a) How, when, and where to exercise.
(b) "Second wind."
(c) Rest.
(d) Will power.
3. Food, good blood, and virility.
(a) What to eat.
(b) Tobacco.
(c) Clogged-up machines.
(d) Blood and other body fluids.
4. Fresh air, bathing, and virility.
(a) Sleeping-porches, camping.
(b) How to bathe.
(c) Change of clothes.
5. Virility and disease.
(a) Disease generally an unnecessary evil.
(b) Relative seriousness of tuberculosis, typhoid, syphilis, gonorrhea,
diphtheria, colds, headaches, adenoids, enlarged tonsils.
(c) Body and mind.
6. Virility and certain glands.
(a) Importance of the thyroid gland and the testicles.
(b) Difference between stallion and gelding.
(c) Seminal vesicles.
(d) Quack doctors.
7. Virility and reproduction.
8. Fatherhood and the next generation.
In our attitude toward the boy, we must show him that we respect him, that
we have faith and confidence in him, and expect great things of him. We
should meet him on the level of a boy's everyday interests in sport, use
simple language, and no unnecessary technical terms. Some workers with
boys unwisely force confessions of guilt. We should respect the boy's
right of privacy.
When we deal with boys in the mass, the grouping is difficult. Boys who
have reached the period of puberty should be in a separate group from
pre-pubescents, and boys who are well advanced in adolescence--those who
have been pubescent for two or three years--should be taught in still a
third group. This applies to single talks as well as to courses of
instruction.
As far as we know the best basis of division between the pubescent and
pre-pubescent boy (when physical examinations are not possible) is the
change of voice. Only one who understands these matters well and knows the
boys should do the grouping. Even such a man should not adopt an arbitrary
basis of grouping but must take one boy at a time and place him in the
group for which he seems best fitted.
We should endeavor to include the father in our plans of sex instruction
and be careful not to break down such confidence as exists between father
and son. We shall find that only a small proportion of fathers give their
sons any instruction in sexual matters, and that it is difficult to stir
them to action. In one investigation, it was found that one hundred boys
out of one hundred and twenty-one had received no sex instruction from
their fathers.[57]
When confidence between father and son does exist, we should help the
father rather than relieve him of his task. It is difficult to discover
fathers who have confidential relations with their boys unless each family
is dealt with separately. The Oregon Social Hygiene Society has conducted
father and son meetings, and has required the father either to accompany
the boy or sign a card signifying his willingness to have his son attend.
Few fathers have attended, sometimes none at all. On one occasion there
were thirty-five boys and not one father.[58] Requiring permission may be
regarded as an assumption that the talk is questionable; and, furthermore,
the requiring of special permission is likely to create an undesirable
attitude on the part of the boy. Plans for father and son meetings which
will be free from these objections will possibly be developed by other
schools or social hygiene societies. Our aim is so to educate one
generation of boys that when they become fathers they will inform their
son regarding these sacred relationships and functions of life.
* * * * *
The boy is normally clean and wholesome. His first question regarding the
origin of life is a good question. When denied wholesome information, the
further investigation which often follows is indicative of desirable
qualities of character. Later, though disturbed by false ideas which have
been forced upon him, he still wishes to be clean and strong. He desires
to master low passions. He would rather have muscular strength and
endurance and energy and will power and courage and chivalry than any
amount of money. He shudders at the thought of causing suffering to an
innocent woman or child. He would sacrifice his life for the girl whom he
regards as the personification of loveliness and purity. If we will but
deal with him fairly and honestly, he will see in birth an ever-recurring
miracle; he will regard his body as a sacred temple; he will see in sex
power a source of richer and fuller life; he will respect women; he will
regard marriage as the most sacred relationship in life. Thus noble
manhood, a nation's greatest asset, will in large measure be achieved.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] John L. Alexander (editor), _Boy Training._ Association Press, New
York, especially pp. 11 to 22.
[42] _Pedagogical Seminary_, vol. IX, no. 3. Worcester, Massachusetts.
[43] G. Stanley Hall, _Adolescence_, vol. I, p. 459.
[44] Prince A. Morrow in the _Transactions_ (vol. I, p. 88) of the
American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis.
[45] Charles Wagner, _The Simple Life_, p. 181. (McClure, Phillips & Co.)
Caleb Williams Saleeby, _Parenthood and Race Culture._ (Moffat, Yard &
Co.) Francis G. Peabody, _Jesus Christ and the Social Question_, p. 162.
(Grosset & Dunlap.)
[46] "What my Boy Knows," _American Magazine_, New York, April, 1913.
[47] Robert E. Speer, _Young Men Who Overcame_, p. 21. (Fleming H. Revell
Co., Chicago.)
[48] Charles Wagner, _Youth_, pp. 248-50.
[49] Charles Wagner, _Youth_, p. 246.
[50] _The Boy Problem_, Educational Pamphlet no. 4, p. 26, of the American
Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 105 West 40th Street, New York.
[51] Jane Addams, _The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets_, p. 20. The
Macmillan Company, New York.
[52] Emerson, _Education_, p. 38. Riverside Monograph Series.
[53] Henry Bryan Binns, _Abraham Lincoln_, p. 356.
[54] Charles Kingsley, _The Roman and the Teuton_, p. 46.
[55] Winfield S. Hall, M.D., _From Youth into Manhood_, p. 32. Association
Press, New York.
[56] Hall, _Reproduction and Sexual Hygiene._
[57] From an investigation conducted by Dr. Winfield S. Hall.
[58] "A Social Emergency," First Annual Report of the Social Hygiene
Society of Portland, Oregon, and the Bulletin of the Oregon Social Hygiene
Society, vol. I, no. I.