Sex Guidance In Familiy Life Education

SEX GUIDANCE INFAMILY LIFE EDUCATIONA Handbook for the SchoolsFRANCES BRUCE STRAINNEW YORKPREFACESex guidance and teaching are rapidly movingall over the United States, Canada, South America, England, even in Asia, interest infamily lift? education is making itself felt. Thisuniversal interest is just one aspect of the socialchange which is emerging from our new internationalism and our new home and family economyWhen nations and families live in isolation, morals and mores are slow to change but whennation and families mingle, then teachings, tradition and customs also mingle. For instance, oursexual ethics as applied to bodily modesty breaksdown in the face of an equal modesty in the unclothed body of a dignified South Sea Islandnative. Furthermore, our sexual ethics, which required that knowledge of reproductive functioning be withheld from young people, breaks downin the congested quarters of our modern apartments and small homes. It breaks down stillfurther under the freedom of press? radio? dailyspeech and growing public sanction.PREFACESex education is moving in upon us willynillyand we must move up to meet it. Yet for themost part as teachers and parentsadult men andwomen that we arewe are not ready. We arecautious, fearful We are held by the traditionsof Ihe past, limited by our lack of knowledge, notsure of results. We need not be fearful for sex education, however, when its skilled trial has provedthat it carries its own wisdom, offers its own safeguard.Sex Guidance in Family Life Education hasbeen written for the teacher who, aware of theneeds of her students, is courageous enough to setabout meeting them. In this book she is givenguidance built upon many years of experiencewithchildren throughout the grades, from elementaryup through junior and senior high schools. Anyhazard which may confront her will lie not insex education itself or sex teaching, but in theprogram she conducts. The administration of aprogram in family life, the way it is conductedboth in the matter of organization and in mannerof presentation, these are the important considerations. These are the hazards. They make the difference between success and failure, between steadyprogress in this growing field of education and discouraging setbacks.PREFACE IXThe long range program presented in Sex Guidance in Family Life Education, integrated andadaptable to an established curriculum, is directedtoward the furtherance of normal sexual development and stability in children in an ordered world.but with equal if not greater adaptation to thepresent expanding world just now coming intobeing. Through its teachings some of the confusions brought about by postwar living may beavoided, thoughts and feelings be influenced toswing back into normal balance, and all childrenassured of a better preparation for the years ahead.Whether in a steady or in a chaotic world, theremust always be the things men live by: love, sweethearts, affections, loyalty and promises of homeand family.