2 APRIL 1932, Page 15

[To the Editor of the SPECTATORI Stn.-The Duchess of Atha

scents in assume that " Sex " is a matter in which the adult must provide the initial is-c. On the contrary, the glowing child initiates its own sex education and is anxious to further its progress in this branch of knowledge until frustrated by adult handling.

A Maid asks questions about sex for exactly the same reason as it asks questions 11110111. other things -tn satisfy a widening curiosity about the strange world around I it. I t is 11111 until these inquiries are treated differently from others that it gets the idea that them is something " special " about. sex.

The process starts at the age of about three years with the query : " Where do babies come from I " This question is normally addressed to one of the parents as the most. con. venient and reliable source of information. If this and sub- sequent similar attempts to obtain knowledge are met with lying (" the gooseberry bush method), the discovery of the fraud—which comes very quickly—will discredit. the parent as a reliable authority on this and other subjects. If the inquiries are nwt with reprimand of any sort the child will attach feelings of guilt to this subject which will probably, lie extended to scientific inquiry in all fields of knowledge, amt this attitude of mind may he carried on into later lift', It is essential that these queStions should be answered in the vocabulary of the nursery and the playground. A pedagogic " mastery of language" only serves to confuse counsel. Further, they must be direct. Disquisit loll,: OR the fertilization of plants, &c., are to the childish mind nothing but evasive irrelevancies.

Sex education of this kind must, of course, he aceompanied by the inculcation of a proper sexual ethic. But here as in other matters of conduct "example is 'better than precept,- and • the morality advocated must appeal by virtue of it innate reasonablenesc:--I ant, Sir, &e., 3:1 'losses. Rood, N.W. 6.

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