The Social Emergency Part 4

All forms of leisure-time consumption are offshoots of the one great common meeting-place of all the people, the street. The street is more than an avenue for traffic. It is the social meeting-place of many of the inhabitants. It is the playground of nearly all the children. Its glitter and glare, its lights and shadows and care-free spirit, attract boys and girls. They come as moths flutter about the candle flame and often with equally disastrous results. The call of the street is irresistible. It is the simplest, most convenient avenue for the satisfaction of that hunger for pleasure, excitement, amus.e.m.e.nt, and recreation, common to all ages, all races, and both s.e.xes. It is the avenue for the spontaneous outpouring of the spirit of democracy. No matter how thickly the city may scatter its playgrounds, its athletic fields, boating and swimming centers and recreation buildings, the street will always have to be reckoned with as the one great all-engulfing factor in the use of the leisure time of the people.

Surely the possibilities for good or evil are infinite when the spirit of youth and age play free, willingly receiving impressions on every hand.

Unfortunately, in the majority of cases the ministry in this field of infinite character-building possibilities has fallen into the hands of men who for the most part reckon its possibilities only in terms of the nickels, dimes, and dollars that pa.s.s over the bar or counter or through the box office. Many of them conceive low opinions of the recreation desires of the people, furnis.h.i.+ng the lurid, the _risque_, the bold, the daring forms of entertainment, or coupling it with other lines of business, as in the case of the saloon, with unfortunate social results.

Can the city afford the commercial exploitations of so much of this valuable time? The answer must be that it can afford it only when the ideals of the men conducting these various forms of amus.e.m.e.nt are as high as the best that the community would demand if managing similar inst.i.tutions. The saloon proprietor is not interested primarily in the physical and moral welfare of his patrons or in the general social welfare of the city. He provides various forms of recreation to increase the patronage of the bar; it is an unwritten law that those who avail themselves of the card-tables, of the pool- and billiard-tables, the moving-picture shows in the saloons, and who hear the music, must patronize the bar. Thirty-six per cent of the pool and billiard licenses are held by men holding saloon licenses, and in all the large pool- and billiard-halls, especially in the center of the city, not connected directly with saloons, liquor is served upon the demand of the patrons.

The evil of the situation is significant when it is remembered that the larger percentage of the patrons of those places are men under twenty-five years of age. Profanity is common, and usually gambling is permitted.

Often these pool- and billiard-parlors are the "hang-outs" of vicious, depraved young men who live upon the earnings of unfortunate women. This use of the leisure time of men is physically, morally, and socially dangerous and should not be permitted.

The public skating-rink is fairly free from objectionable features, but boys and girls attending without proper chaperons often form undesirable acquaintances. Women of the street and their male companions often attend.

Juvenile court officials are aware of the immoralities springing from this source.

The amus.e.m.e.nt parks present almost unlimited possibilities for the formation of undesirable acquaintances. The fact that they are open in the evening, and not lighted in all parts, the presence of cafes where liquors can be had, inadequate police protection, the secrecy possible through the presence of large crowds, the size of the parks, the distance from the homes in the city, and the unchaperoned attendance of large crowds of young people, all make amus.e.m.e.nt parks dangerous without closer supervision by public authorities.

In former days the road-house ministered to the legitimate needs of wayfaring travelers. To-day the name "road-house" is synonymous with the "bawdy-house" of the city. Located just beyond the borders of towns and cities, beyond police supervision, catering to men and women who desire secrecy for their revels and orgies, the road-house is one of the worst possible inst.i.tutions now ministering to the leisure time of the people.

In some sections of this country, the public excursion, both by land and water, is as bad as the road-house. Instead of being a time of relaxation and recreation, a time of freedom from cares of the workaday life and enjoyment of pure air, suns.h.i.+ne, and beauties of nature, and of fine social relations.h.i.+ps of people, the excursions have become dissipations of physical and moral energy. With proper supervision and with proper standards on the part of promoters of transportation companies, the public excursion can be a fine constructive factor in the use of the leisure time of the people.

Festivals and carnivals conducted by the people of a community, commemorative of national holidays or of historical events or of religious life, are often admirable. But whenever the festival or carnival becomes a commercial enterprise for the purpose of attracting crowds to the city, for advertis.e.m.e.nt and for gain by merchants and hotel proprietors, young people are in danger. The city becomes the mecca for undesirable men and women who prey upon the susceptibilities of the people, animated by the festival spirit. The hotels are the temporary homes of women of the street. Every large festival of this kind has been followed by social evils of the most virulent type. Many a girl and many a boy, yielding to the influences of the abandonment of the crowd, take the first step in s.e.xual vice. This type of festival is not socially profitable to a community, where the commercial aim and purpose predominates. The commercial exploitation of the recreation and social needs of the people is usually productive of s.e.xual immorality.

A characteristic feature of American life is the club, union, society, or order spontaneously formed by the people. No matter what the fundamental purposes of these groups may be, whether for protection against sickness, accident, and industrial evils, whether for the study of art, music, and literature, or for the promotion of physical activities, the primary bond that brings the group together and holds it together is the social instinct of mankind.

Those which administer to the play and recreation life of their members most efficiently are strongest. The dances, card parties, lectures, entertainments, and other social activities conducted by such groups are usually under the best kind of social control, far better than any type of commercial amus.e.m.e.nt and perhaps better than most public-supervised amus.e.m.e.nts. The strength is in the comparative smallness of the group, the personal acquaintance of the members, the presence of older people with the young, and the existence of individual and group responsibility and ideals. Far better social control would result if all public dances and public skating-rinks and excursions were conducted on this group or society basis.

One field of neglected social activity is the home as a recreation and social center. The day of the "party" seems to be past. Parents have thus lost one strong hold on the character development of their children.

Thousands of parents in the modern city have lost the social spirit of the home because of crowded living conditions, but there are also thousands, especially in the Western cities, who still have individual homes; every such home should be the primary social and recreation center for adolescent boys and girls. The revival of the small group social in the home for the young people would be a constructive contribution to some of the moral problems of the young.

In the leisure-time activities of children, the Sunday supplement or "funny sheet" of the newspaper is of importance. The funny sheet appeals not so much through humor as through glaring color and grotesque pictures which violate every canon of color combination and of art. Exaggerated types of mischievous children and freakish adults, and equally freakish and unthinkable mechanical devices, are favorite subjects. Disobedience of children, premature and unnatural childish love-affairs, domestic infelicity, the privileges and advantages of bachelorhood are paraded Sunday after Sunday before the susceptible minds of millions of children.

Mult.i.tudinous as are the private agencies administering to the leisure-time activities of all the people, neither the commercial amus.e.m.e.nts nor the numerous spontaneous private organizations answer all the requirements of social and recreative needs of the people. On the one hand, commercial amus.e.m.e.nts, while used and enjoyed by ma.s.ses of the people, have been objects of danger and distrust because of their anti-social effects. On the other hand, the private society, club, order, and organization are essentially narrow, and formed with other purposes and ideals in view than ministering to the social and recreative needs and desires of the people. The providing of ample facilities for the fullest and most wholesome use of the leisure time of the people is a community responsibility, just as important to the public welfare as a system of public education.

This community sense of responsibility did not in the beginning have the wide constructive vision which characterizes it to-day. It was designed first as a corrective of pathological social ills, especially relative to childhood and youth. Congestion in the modern city, an incident and a result of specialization and expansion of American industrial and commercial life, caused living conditions inimical to the health and morals of all the people. As usual the children suffered most. Deprived of light, air, wholesome living quarters, play s.p.a.ce, and the advantages of a real home, they fell easy victims to disease, sickness, death, and, what is worse, to the disease and death of ideals and morals. Juvenile faults and crimes increased at an alarming rate. The therapy of play was applied.

It was soon found, however, that the great mission of playgrounds was not as a therapeutic agent, but as a preventive and constructive force. The movement took on large, positive, constructive aims, purposes, and ideals.

It expanded into the playground and recreation movement, with emphasis upon the latter, aiming to provide for and direct the leisure-time activities of all the people. Play was restored as the right of every child, without which no wholesome physical, mental, and moral growth is possible.

As constructively related to other great social problems, the playground and recreation movement was found almost universally applicable. s.e.xual immorality and the white-slave traffic are combated by recreation centers where young women obtain under normal conditions the highest ideals and satisfy the spirit of youth, which is the sign of life itself.

The scope of this larger movement is as follows: It promotes the establishment of playgrounds within walking distance of every child; athletic and sport fields for older boys and girls and for men and women; boating and swimming centers and parks for the use of all; recreation and social centers in munic.i.p.al recreation buildings and in school buildings, where all the people of a community, irrespective of race or creed, may find opportunity for the fullest possible recreation and social life; it promotes school and munic.i.p.al camps, tramping-clubs, and other activities that cultivate the habit of outdoor life; physical education and athletics in the schools that reach every child, instead of a few as now; it stands for school playgrounds, in connection with every school; it seeks to provide facilities through which musical, literary, dramatic, and artistic talents of the people may find encouragement and expression, and for a constructive social supervision of all commercial amus.e.m.e.nts.

Yet playgrounds and recreation centers are not free from social dangers.

Many of the moral dangers of commercial amus.e.m.e.nts may arise in munic.i.p.ally owned and managed systems of recreation. In fact public playgrounds have become such moral menaces as to warrant their closure in the interests of public welfare. Some of the worst cases of s.e.xual immorality coming to the juvenile courts arise in public playgrounds. This is the result of bringing large numbers of young people into a common play place without the most careful supervision, guidance, and direction. The physical growth and health, the morals, the happiness, and the ideals of citizens.h.i.+p of great ma.s.ses of the people are so deeply involved in the right use of the leisure time of the people that to conduct their activities in any way but according to the highest standards is a civic crime.

CHAPTER VII

EDUCATIONAL PHASES

_By Edward Octavius Sisson_

The education of youth as it exists has a great gap wherever the subjects of reproduction and s.e.x are concerned. Children are taught at home many things about every other part of their lives, but usually nothing about this; at school they learn the anatomy and physiology of bones and muscles, of sense-organs, and nervous system, of glands and alimentary ca.n.a.l, of respiration and circulation; but a sudden silence falls just before s.e.x is reached. We study everything about life except its origin, and in ignoring that we lose a most fascinating and beautiful field of inquiry, an essential part of knowledge, and a vital element in moral intelligence.[30]

The aims of s.e.x education may be stated in the main as follows:--

(1) The first aim is individual prudence. Every normal human being must undergo crucial tests and solve vital problems in his own s.e.x life. The most beautiful successes of life and its most conspicuous failures are both exceedingly frequent in the realm of s.e.x. The conditions of the s.e.xual life are sufficiently alike in all normal cases so that the experience of the race is valuable to the individual in meeting his own problems. Each child as he pa.s.ses onward through youth to maturity is treading a road new to him, not lacking in danger and pitfalls, nor without opportunities for great reward. Education must give him all the available advance information concerning the road he is to travel.

(2) The second aim is general intelligence. s.e.x is a universal element in all living beings, with the exception of the very lowest; it pervades the life of the spirit as well as the life of the body. No man, therefore, can be intelligent concerning things in general without a clear, definite and accurate knowledge of the fundamental facts of s.e.x. One of the strongest new visions concerning s.e.x is the marvelous way in it ramifies into all fields of thought and action. Not a few of the most eminent workers in modern science incline to consider all aspects of human life, including even religion itself, as emanations or processes from the s.e.x basis. Such in particular are G. Stanley Hall in America and Freud in Germany. Without going to such extremes we may still recognize the fact that in all sorts of physical and psychic problems in morals, religion, and sociology, s.e.x plays an important part and must be understood if we are to grasp the situation and its meaning.[31]

(3) The third aim is social enlightenment. The human spirit in our own day is manifestly addressing itself to the solution of the special social problems which involve the s.e.xual life of men. Three of these problems may be specified: (a) The so-called "social evil," including not merely prost.i.tution, but also all other forms of waste and injury through s.e.xual errors; (b) the problem of family life, including marriage and the rearing of children, as well as pathological aspects such as desertion and divorce; (c) the vast problem of eugenics or race culture.

In all these fields the problems of s.e.x are involved. Men and women who desire to bear their whole burden as members of a progressive society must contribute to the solution of these great social problems, and to do this wisely must know something about the basic facts of s.e.x life.[32]

The first and basic part of s.e.x education is bodily regimen: children and youth must live an abundant, vigorous, wholesome physical life.[33] Cities have threatened to be the "graves of the human species" in this respect.

Sedentary life chokes and misdirects the currents of nervous energy and the very circulation of the blood. The lad who plays vigorously, even violently; who can "get his second wind," turn a handspring, do a good cross-country run, swim the river, possesses a great bulwark of defense against s.e.xual vice, especially in its secret forms.

The revival of play, of play for all, boys and girls, weak as well as strong, is one of the most hopeful movements on foot to-day. Let us base our promotions from grade to grade, and especially for "graduation" from school, partly upon physical tests, requiring each student to make of himself physically, not a record-breaking athlete, but the best that can be made out of the stuff in him.

Food, sleep, clothing, bathing, fresh air,--all these are vital also; whatever turns the flow and thrill of life into wholesome channels, abolishes indolence, stagnation, morbidity, and fosters abundance of bodily life,--such is the regimen of s.e.x health.

No bodily regimen can be effective without mental control. Nowhere does mind affect body more immediately and powerfully than in the realm of s.e.x.

The educator has two great tasks in this respect: first to improve the general environment in which the young must live and develop. As things are, our streets, store-windows, books and magazines, and especially public amus.e.m.e.nts, such as theaters and dance halls, abound in s.e.xual suggestion and stimulation.[34] These agencies stimulate an excessive stream of s.e.xual desire, with all its physical accompaniments, in boys and men: the natural and inevitable result is an overwhelming impulse toward illicit satisfaction in self-abuse or s.e.xual immorality. Society in self-defense and the interest of its youth must wage war upon this mercenary exploiting of the s.e.x impulse. Licentious thinking is the great foe of continence; the saying of Jesus may be paraphrased thus with physiological correctness: "He that looketh upon a woman to l.u.s.t after her hath already committed the s.e.xual act in his _nervous system_."

Hence, the second task in this connection is to arouse and arm the youth against the l.u.s.ts of the mind, and lead him in a resolute fight for mastery over his own thoughts. "Do not harbor in your mind anything you would fear to have your enemies know, or blush to have your friends know,"

is a good motto for boys and youth.

When we come to instruction in matters of reproduction and s.e.x, the first principle is that it should be given in organic relation with the rest of life and thought. It arises naturally in two main connections: in response to the child's own questions and problems; and as part and parcel of biological science. The common questions of the little child, "Where does the baby come from?" or perhaps even earlier, "How does the hen make the eggs?"--an actual question of a four-year-old--are the signal and the open door for easy and natural enlightenment. Seize the opportunity: tell the truth, as simply and briefly as possible, and the beginning is made; watch for and utilize all such opportunities, as they come, and the main road of the task is marked out; shock is minimized, if not eliminated, mutual confidence is engendered, and a priceless reward may be won. But if at that first question we falter, quibble, blush, lie, jest, or repel, we have entered the wrong road which leads eternally astray. Let no question ever be either ignored or neglected, least of all repelled. It is the golden opportunity for parent, teacher, or friend. To guarantee against the child seeking promiscuous and irresponsible sources of information, let his questions ever find the warmest welcome and kindest response at the parent's knee.[35]

Now the movements of the child's own mind in matters of s.e.x and reproduction may either be actual questions more or less explicit, or they may be subtler seekings for light,--hints, vague inquiries, gropings after what he cannot phrase or hesitates to utter; these inward stirrings are vital, and the alert and sympathetic and patient parent can in the main perceive them and bring them to light. But success need not be hoped for in this respect unless first the beginnings are attended to; uncounted parents can testify to the infinite difficulty of breaking to the boy or girl the silence long practiced with the child. Nor will occasional or spasmodic fits of interest and action by the parent achieve much; Emerson's proverb holds inflexibly here; "What wilt thou have?" quoth G.o.d; "pay for it and take it." Pay we must in time, in thought, in perseverance and patience, in study of the problems and self-preparation for the task.

Happily the progress of s.e.x hygiene among adults is yearly increasing the number of fathers and mothers who are awake and active.

We have spoken of meeting the motions of the child, as though the educator might never need to take the initiative; in all probability that might be true in an ideal state. As things are it would be unsafe to rely absolutely upon questions; the parent and on occasion other educators must take the initiative in some cases. In doing so, however, the most scrupulous care should be taken to be sure that the mind of the learner is ready for the particular instruction.

In biological instruction what is needed is not an artificial appendix or addendum, but simply that we should cease to mutilate science by omitting its most fruitful and essential elements. Nature study for little children is the first available field; it should begin even before the kindergarten age, with the simplest and easiest observations, and proceed by gentle gradations of progress; it finds abundant and fascinating material in growing plants, eggs, brooding chickens, kittens, puppies, and, best of all, the new baby, where the home questions and the nature study meet in a profound emotional and intellectual experience.[36]

The botany, zoology, physiology, and hygiene the upper grades and the high school the natural mediums for further scientific treatment.[37] It will probably be found advisable to separate the s.e.xes for this part of the work, and have boys taught by men and girls by women. Not a few high schools and colleges are already carrying on such instruction with entire success.

It seems quite clear that the school must set itself, wisely, indeed, but also resolutely and effectively, to provide clear, true, scientific knowledge of the origin of life and the laws of s.e.x. The educator can, must, and will answer truly and purely, all questions in these matters on which the child and youth are now left to random, miscellaneous, clandestine sources, and get vile, false, and pernicious answers.

As childhood pa.s.ses into youth and the p.u.b.ertal changes begin, the objective curiosity of the earliest years pa.s.ses gradually into the intense concern of personal problems. The general principle is the same: do not drag in the subject of s.e.x and reproduction, but do not evade or ignore it when it appears; deal with it truly, purely, honestly, fearlessly, as an essential and organic part of truth and life.

The safe and happy outcome in these personal problems can be guaranteed in only one way--that the young person should be able to turn with complete confidence and little embarra.s.sment to some trusted and intimate counselor, preferably the parent, but otherwise physician, pastor, older friend, with whom he has already discussed s.e.xual questions, and who he knows will receive his advances with sympathy, answer his questions with frankness and intelligence, and hold his confidence sacred. Happy the youth or maiden who has such a guide in the crises of unfolding powers and perils.