Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/20

2 society's most spectacular attempt to prepare youth to meet the problems of life. However, the collective influence of these institutions is but one factor among many.

The home training, teaching and disciplining of children from infancy onward is a constant effort to prepare the young for the experiences of life. That this training so often falls short and proves inadequate is another matter. The point is that every parent worthy of the name wishes to have his or her child amount to something—in other words, to develop into a real manly man, or a fine womanly woman. And to fulfil either of these rôles, one must learn to face life and understand the significance of many of its problems. More often this knowledge is acquired somewhat without conscious realization of the process, and with added difficulty because of the lack of conscious insight.

Only too often it is just missed because a sincere explanation of many perplexing and baffling questions is not given; because, in effect, the mind of the young is not taught in the home environment to look upon natural phenomena in a normal healthy manner.

It is conceded that the most essential preparation for adulthood, and the best safeguard for pre-adulthood, is an understanding of the practical side of life and its ways.

And how inseparably the countless manifestations of sex are bound up with life! Notwithstanding this fact, the great majority of people for generations have been trying to prepare their children for life by leaving sex entirely out of the scheme. It was ignored.

Of course, sex was not eliminated; it was simply—or most complexly—twisted out of its normal place and proportion. But it asserted itself in numberless ways, sometimes disguised, often perversely, and only too frequently with unfortunate results.