Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXthat it may perhaps be best that education should not betoo definite.It is now held by the best authorities that the sexualguidance of children should begin, so far as its elementsare concerned, at a very early age, and that a wise andtender mother is the ideal person to perform this reallymaternal duty. It may, indeed, be added that only amother can perform it rightly, and the training of mothersis an essential condition for the wholesome developmentof children. There is danger, it is sometimes said, thatchildren's minds will be artificially concentrated on sexualsubjects, of which otherwise they might remain blissfullyunconscious. It isimportant, however, to remember thenatural operationsof a child's mind. A child's desire toknow where babies come from is not a symptom o sexualconsciousness, it is a natural desire to discover an importantscientific fact. Again, at a little later age, the desireto know and see how the bodies of persons of the oppositesex are made is equally innocent and natural. It is theforced and unreasoned suppression of these natural curiosities,and not their gratification,which favors anunhealthy sexual consciousness. The child secretly concentrateshimself on the solution of these mysteries onlybecause any open attempt to solve them is on every handrebuffed.There should be nothing formal or special about theknowledge of sex imparted by the mother to her child.When the relation between mother and child is naturaland intimate every function must from time to time comeup for consideration, and the sensible mother will dealwith each as it arises, though without carrying her informationfurther than the child's curiosity at the timedemands. Sex and excretion will be dealt with assimplyas anything else, and neither with the slightest sign of