CHAPTER IV

MORAL EDUCATION AND LEGAL PROTECTION OF CHILDREN


No great wrong has ever arisen more clearly to the social consciousness
of a generation than has that of commercialized vice in the
consciousness of ours, and that we are so slow to act is simply another
evidence that human nature has a curious power of callous indifference
towards evils which have been so entrenched that they seem part of that
which has always been. Educators of course share this attitude; at
moments they seem to intensify it, although at last an educational
movement in the direction of sex hygiene is beginning in the schools and
colleges. Primary schools strive to satisfy the child's first
questionings regarding the beginnings of human life and approach the
subject through simple biological instruction which at least places this
knowledge on a par with other natural facts. Such teaching is an
enormous advance for the children whose curiosity would otherwise have
been satisfied from poisonous sources and who would have learned of
simple physiological matters from such secret undercurrents of corrupt
knowledge as to have forever perverted their minds. Yet this first
direct step towards an adequate educational approach to this subject has
been surprisingly difficult owing to the self-consciousness of grown-up
people; for while the children receive the teaching quite simply, their
parents often take alarm. Doubtless co-operation with parents will be
necessary before the subject can fall into its proper place in the