ore
that time we make no effort to force him to bite. Later he finds he can
help himself from one position to another by creeping. Then in a few
months he discovers he is able to use his feet and tries to walk. We do
not try to force any of these new ideas upon him but simply wait
patiently until he expresses a desire to acquire some new knowledge,
then we aid him and guide his efforts.

There comes a time in the life of every child when he awakens to
knowledge of reproduction. Then is the time to give the information.
Some children commence to inquire as early as three years. At such an
early age it is not necessary to go into details, as a very little
information suffices to satisfy the child.

Just how to tell the truths necessary must vary with the age of the
child. It is important to remember to be truthful to the child. When a
mother tells the child that the stork or the doctor brings the baby, she
sets a seal upon evasion. Some day he will learn that his mother has
deceived him and that behind her instruction lies an element of secrecy,
and secrecy with its companion curiosity is the cause of much unrest in
after life. The child gathers the idea that there must be something
shameful connected with the birth of a child or his mother would not be
ashamed to tell him the truth.

Secondly, the child must be told scientifically that this knowledge may
form a basis for later studies in biology. He can be taught in a simple
manner that all nature comes from a seed; that the mother makes a tiny
nest for the seed and that with all seeds it is necessary for their
growth that the father gives them some pollen.

Until these subjects are put before children and young people with some
degree of intelligence and sympathetic handling, it cannot be expected
that anything but the utmost confusion in mind and in morals should
reign in matters of sex. It seems incredible that our thoughts could be
so unclean that we find it impossible to give to our children the
information they need on these most sacred subjects, but instead we
allow them to obtain their information whenever and wherever they can
and in the most unclean manner. A child at the age of puberty is capable
of the most sensitive, affectional and serene appreciation of what sex
means and can absorb the teachings if properly given without any shock
to his sense of the fitness of things. Indeed whenever these subjects
are taught to the child correctly they induce a feel