Motherhood and the Relationships of the Sexes
CONTENTS OF CHAPTER XIV  THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD       A tragedy of childhood—_The Awakening of Spring_, by Frank     Wedekind—How we have ignored the need of the young for sexual     enlightenment—The old method of silence a fatal mistake—Our     fear of sex—The question of the sexual education of the     child—Conflicting opinion—The twin causes of our civilisation     prudery and prurience—The manner in which parents shirk and     evade the natural inquiries of their children about birth     and the facts of sex—The inevitable harm of this action—The     early activity of the child’s intelligence—Foolish stories     and lies—Stimulate instead of quiet curiosity—Sex knowledge     gained from servants and vicious companions—This danger from     servants greater in the case of boys—Many young boys seduced     by women—The duty of the mother to instruct her children—The     difficulties that hinder parents—The child and the sexual     impulse—The teaching of Freud—The danger from mistakes in the     early training of the child—No age too young for education     to begin—Mistakes that may be made—Our unconscious teaching     stronger than anything we say—The mistake of set lessons—Sex     not a subject to be taught like arithmetic—What is necessary     is to tell the child the truth—Its questions must be answered     as soon as they are put—The importance of not arousing     curiosity—The child, not the mother, to be the guide—Cases in     which we must be prepared to fail—The mother cannot always     help her child—Recapitulation—The real difficulty in sexual     education arises from our treatment of sex as something apart     from the rest of life—We are afraid—Nothing worth doing can be     done until this is changed.