The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

very much less of this on the part of women than
there was fifty years ago. I should say that at
present among educated people the sex life of men
is more contorted and more poisoned by the sense
of sin than that of women.
There is beginning to be widespread awareness,
though not of course on the part of public
authorities, of the evils of traditional sex education
in regard to the very young. The right rule is
simple: until a child is nearing the age of puberty
teach him or her no sexual morality whatever, and
carefully avoid instilling the idea that there is
anything disgusting in the natural bodily functions.
As the time approaches when it becomes necessary
to give moral instruction, be sure that it is rational,
and that at every point you can give good grounds
for what you say. But it is not on education that I
wish to speak in this book. In this book I am
concerned rather with what the adult can do to
minimise the evil effects of unwise education in
causing an irrational sense of sin.