Cauldwell
<< Introduction >>

Superficial reflection may lead us to associate the sex impulse in children with pantomime, because in their games the imaginary position of parents is assumed. Actually such games often have little to do with the sex impulse.

Psychologists and other interested scientific workers have learned much about the child and the sex impulse. But just as nuclear fission has not yielded all of its secrets, so have scientists failed to learn all about the sex impulse in the child.

A few years ago a world-renowned sexologist asserted that children are asexual. By this he did not mean that children do not have certain sex characteristics. He referred to the fact that all areas of the child body are more sensitive than are the various areas of the adult body. That the external sexual organs were the most sensitive areas of the body was admitted, but the fact that they were sometimes intentionally stimulated by children was attributed to the pleasure-pain principle This was not in keeping, however, with certain opinions expressed by the erudite physician. He referred to masturbation as an evil practice and went so far as to advocate punishment as a means toward breaking children from the practice.

Today all of this seems incongruous to the enlightened person. No longer do we associate evil and masturbation. It is known that the practice is nearly universal in mankind and the lower animals, that the period during which it is indulged is short in comparison to the life span, and that the habit is not harmful in the physiological sense. Misunderstanding and ignorance may cause some psychic damage, but this is usually readily overcome, and all effects of the habit are obliterated through normal and happy heterosexual experience.

Parents of young children today have access to knowledge which was not available to their parents. For this reason, the old stork and other stories are becoming obsolete. Indeed, parents who persist in telling stork and birds, bees, and flowers stories to their children are often surprised when their children prompt them by imparting the correct knowledge.

There is the anecdote about the mother who actually explained to her 5-year-old son. When she had finished, the little boy remarked: “Daddy sure is dumb. He thinks I came from a tree.”

The taboos of a few years ago are vanishing. Now we can learn about sex. The subject is hush-hushed in certain circles, and under certain conditions. This has not kept a forward-thinking state, Oregon, from passing a law which has fostered the inauguration of sex instruction in all of the public schools within its jurisdiction. Press reports indicate that children are imparting the knowledge gained to their parents and that instead of being humiliated, the parents are grateful.

Many parents have long been handicapped by a lack of suitable and acceptable terminology. Several months ago a survey indicated that, a high percentage of parents refrained from seeking to impart sexual knowledge to their children because they were ashamed that the only terminology they knew was regarded as vulgar.

Scientific and educational investigation is constantly adding to our knowledge concerning sex. Daily we are learning more and more about the sex life and the sex impulse in the child. We believe that much that is being learned is basic and that tomorrow's investigations will but shed added light upon this basic information.

Numerous medical text books of so short a time as 10 years ago are stuffed with ideas which are now obsolete. Yet that which was basic in those books is basic today. Thus the books still have real value. We may see, therefore, that that which is not basic in today's knowledge of sex may be helpful now, regardless of the fact that it may be obsolete a few months or years hence. The basic will stand.

Our present study will involve much that appears to have been established as basic. Certain psychological aspects, although applicable today, may not be applicable to the changed attitude of tomorrow.

The trend in sex knowledge is toward greater tolerance and understanding. No longer do we think of the intimate relations between the sexes as a mere response to an impulse of the flesh in the male and a response to the demands of the maternal nature in woman. We think rather of the demands of sex in the same category as we think of the demands of the body for food, for shelter, clothing, and comfort. We have learned that sex, within itself, is not an evil, and we have learned that sex is an essential — a basic part of us, and that sexual desire is no more basic than any other natural desire.

Adults who are interested in the welfare and guidance of children are manifesting marked interest in the science of sex and its hygiene.

The idea of punishing children as a means to rearing better citizens is becoming a relic of a past age cherished only by those who refuse to advance. Better methods of training children are constantly being developed. These methods are far more pleasant to parents and to children than the older methods of force.

This book is not intended to fill the needs that only an extensive volume can fill. It is intended merely as a stepping stone for parents and other adult persons who desire a better understanding of children and the sex impulse, and coincidentally, a better understanding of the sex impulses of mature human beings.

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