The venereal diseases should be referred to in talks to adolescent boys.  In this connection, the four sex lies may be vigorously contradicted.  These are (1) that gonorrhea is no worse than a bad cold; (2) that sexual intercourse is necessary for the preservation of health; (3) that emissions are dangerous and lead to debility, lost manhood, and insanity; and (4) that one standard of morality is right for men and another for women.

It should be explained that although both animals and human beings are endowed with the sex instinct, only human beings have the gift of control.  That the sex instinct is a great blessing, and not a curse, should be made clear.  It may be stated that various blessings are sometimes converted into sources of destruction when not controlled.  A spirited horse is a source of great enjoyment, but if not controlled may maim us for life.  Fire is a great blessing and a great joy to us when we are camping by a lake or in the mountains; but, beyond our control, it may cause forest fires.  Temper, the capacity for anger, is highly desirable; but it must be controlled or murder may result.  We must control the sex instinct, or it may control us and sink us lower than the brutes.  On the other hand, if we control this instinct, we gain virility, a keener appreciation of the beauties of life, and life itself becomes richer and fuller.

In conclusion, the appeal should be for clean living for the sake of physical strength and vigor, not for one’s own sake, but for the sake of country and future wife and children.

The standard toward which we are working in sex education involves the dissemination throughout the school curriculum of such information as we now give in a single talk.  In addition to such nature-study work and simple biology and physiology and hygiene as should be included in the lower grades, there should be instruction in biology and in personal hygiene required for all upper-grammar and all high-school students, as soon as well qualified teachers are available.  In personal hygiene a proper amount of sex hygiene should be incorporated; and with the treatment of other diseases, gonorrhea and syphilis should be given adequate attention; the idea of the whole plan being to place all these matters in their proper setting, without undue emphasis on matters of sex.

Either (first) as a part of one of these courses or (second) as a part of some other general course, or (third) as a separate course, the following subjects should be considered:—­

1.  What is virility?
  (a) Virility and the next generation.
  (b) Virility and our nation.
  (c) Types of virility.

2.  Muscle, exercise, and virility.
  (a) How, when, and where to exercise.
  (b) “Second wind.”
  (c) Rest.
  (d) Will power.

3.  Food, good blood, and virility.
  (a) What to eat.
  (b) Tobacco.
  (c) Clogged-up machines.
  (d) Blood and other body fluids.