elimination and reproduction. It is an informal sort of
thing which comes along like a little companion of the more important
topics. Strange that so much that is visible should go nameless, while
hidden things like heart and stomach and lungs should be known! A young
five-year-old who adored his pretty nursery-school teacher took constant
note of the beauties of her person. Her eyes were so blue and her hair
was so wavy and her throat was so smooth, and when she bent over, "you
could see her _lungs!_"

In all this provision for your children's understanding, one thing we
counsel against. It is the choice of another person--friend, nurse,
minister, doctor--to take your place, unless that person has had special
sex-education training and possesses those personal qualifications
which fit him for the task. A scientific background is not enough. In
the near future we shall have college-trained leaders, not only trained
but college-sanctioned and selected. Until that time there is no lay
person so well qualified to teach children as their own intelligent
fathers and mothers. They are able to establish a valued inner and
progressive bond of confidence when their teaching has been happily and
wisely carried out. After all, in this age of transition when so much is
counted good that once was counted bad, and so much counted bad that was
once good, it doesn't matter much what our words are so long as they
convey reassurance, dependability, and a sense of the rightness of
living _with_ rather than _against_ the best of Nature's plans.

Does sex instruction tend to start misconduct--suggest to children that
they undress each other, play "father and mother," and does it impel to
too free speech and behavior? No, on the contrary, sex teaching, wisely
carried on, has proved itself to be the best of preventives. It has a
stabilizing influence and leaves the minds of the children free to turn
to other interests. My experience shows a high correlation between sex
misconduct and lack of adequate sex instruction.

Usually in childhood, sexual misconduct is not sexual at all in origin.
It has any number of causes and any number of guises. Most frequent of
the causes are: seeking to know, emotional stress, lack of a good time,
sex activity in others, premature sex experience.

Children who do not live in a cloud of mystery, whose mental horizon has
been cleared by simple explanations of observable facts--the differences
in physical stru