only way in which this condition may be bettered is not by preaching that the public schools should take over more of the parents' burdens, but by insisting that the parents should fulfil the duty they owe their offspring and the community.

It may be fitting to give special instruction to some individuals privately, who are selected by the teachers and sent to the nurse or physician for this purpose. Or, in the high schools, instruction may very properly be given to those individuals who make confidants of their teachers. With the right kind of teachers in physical education, these are the teachers selected for confidences most frequently, and their opportunity for private instruction and for influence over their pupils is extraordinarily beneficial.

We now come to the real gist of the situation: that sex hygiene should be taught, but that it should be taught to the parents, first, that they may be made to feel that it is their duty to do this work, not the duty of the school; second, that they may feel that they have the necessary kind and amount of information, so that they may teach it properly. This instruction may be given to the parents by properly chosen school nurses or lecturers or school physicians, or by the teacher of physical education, providing he has been properly trained. This is not a matter to be left to an athletic or football coach. If this work is to be given under school auspices, it should be done by someone regularly employed by the board of education, so that the proper authorities may have absolute control. These talks should be given to groups of parents, with the sexes separated, for the reason that discussion and the asking of questions will be much more free thus than in mixed groups.

By this means, an opportunity is afforded the public school to perform its true function of educating the people, not only educating them in the fundamentals of this subject which is so important to the future of our race, but educating them along lines that will enable the home to get back some of the ground it has lost in the proper education of its young. Only by such means are we going to check the downward tendency of the home for throwing off its duties and the equally downward tendency of outside agencies to take from the home its privileges. Thus may we replace the family hearthstone where it belongs, as the foundation of the moral and religious training of our youth.

II. MABEL M. WRIGHT, PHYSICAL DIRECTOR OF GIRLS,

SCHURZ HIGH SCHOOL, CHICAGO, ILL.

In this brief discussion of a very large question the various aspects of the present needs for sex education will not be dwelt upon at length. The object of this paper will be largely to give some of the practical results of the personal purity talks given in the Chicago high schools during the fall of 1913. Such tangible facts as have been obtained come chiefly from the

girls of one of the coeducational high schools where economic and social conditions may be considered somewhat above the average.

A series of three lectures was given to all high-school pupils by members of the medical profession. Boys and girls were segregated, women physicians giving the talks to girls, while the boys were addressed by men. The general plan for these lectures was the same in all high schools, but when we consider that some latitude was given each speaker, that religious, economic, and other conditions cause public opinion to vary with each locality, and, most important of all, the personal equation of the lecturer, it is plain that the results will differ more or less widely. Any pupil whose parents wished to have him excused was not required to be present. There were very few of such requests. Three lectures were given in progression. These talks covered in general the biological and physiological truths which formed the basis for sex education, personal sexual hygiene, problems of sex instincts, and a few of the hygienic and social facts regarding venereal disease.

When some time had elapsed after these lectures had been given, representative gymnasium classes from the four years of the high school were asked to write out a criticism of the lectures and, in addition, to answer a few questions which were suggested. No names or other means of identification were placed on these papers.

The first question asked of the girls was in regard to the source of information of sexual knowledge. About 53 per cent received this information from their mothers, 15 per cent from older sisters or other relatives, 27 per cent from girl friends, and 5 per cent from various other sources as teachers, nurses, doctors, lectures at school, books, and overhearing conversations in regard to such matters.

Closely associated with the source of information is the need, as the pupil sees it, for sex instruction in schools; also the attitude of parents toward such instruction. So it happens that the answers to these three questions are grouped together in many instances and throw an interesting light on the teaching of sex education in the schools.

The following are some of the replies received:

1. Freshman.—I knew nothing before the lectures: Mother thought me too young. My instincts and imagination told me some things and then I overheard a conversation between mother and a lady visitor, so guessed at part of it, but did not have any definite information until the lectures.

2. Junior.-Got my first information from my girl friends. Was very glad to hear lectures and want to hear more, for while my mother knows a lot, she won't tell me a thing.

3. Senior.-Mother told me about menstrual periods after they had arrived. Was told a great many things by girl friends at ten years of age which I did not understand very well. I took a dark view of all those things and feel now, after having had them explained, that I should have been told earlier by an older person and not by girls who had a wrong view.

Of the parents, only 8 per cent found open objection to the lectures. Some were a little dubious, but the usual answer to this question was that the parents did not object.

A few girls were indifferent as to whether the lectures should be continued, but at least 90 per cent were in favor of having this work introduced regularly into the schools. In their search for the best means of introduction, four conditions were considered: by whom, with whom, when, and where. The consensus of opinion is that the teacher who presents this work must be the one who knows the girls most intimately and has their confidence, respect, and admiration. There must be a close personal relationship between pupils and teacher, so the pupils will feel free to ask questions. Many said they were too shy, too modest, too embarrassed, or did not think it right to ask questions of a stranger. There must be a closer bond between members of the group than is usually found in the average classroom. There was an urgent demand for small, intimate groups, ranging in numbers from five to fifty. Many preferred personal talks, but realized that such would not be feasible. Time and place were of little consideration so long as there was no disturbing of the program or other publicity given these lectures. Above all, this particular subject must not stand out by itself or be out of relation to other things. In casting about for a solution for these problems, the great majority of girls seized the one closest to hand-the gymnasium class.

No doubt the fact that these answers were written in the gymnasium, for the gymnasium teachers, and with girls whom they had learned to know intimately thru gymnasium work, acted as a strong suggestion in determining their answers. Nearly 80 per cent found the gymnasium class the one place which met all these conditions; 12 per cent felt the physiology and hygiene class the natural place for this subject; while the remaining 8 per cent divided their preference among the dean, domestic science teacher, and outside lecturers.

Among the interesting remarks on these points are the following:

1. Freshman.—When we come to the gymnasium is the time to hear the lectures. Then every boy and girl and teacher in the school does not know that we are having lectures. The gymnasium teacher comes closely in contact with the girls, and when we are in doubt we can go to her and she will explain.

2. Junior.—I think it would be a good plan to have our teachers lecture on such subjects and make it a regular study in the high school like physiology.

3. Senior.-Lectures should be given in the gymnasium by the gymnasium teacher who has girls only, and with whom the girls are well acquainted. She has to know when we are excused from work and everything else about us when she gives physical examinations, so the girls are not afraid to ask questions of her as they are of other teachers and lecturers and doctors.

It is very difficult to plan subject-matter which will not be a repetition of well-known facts for some or entirely too new or advanced for others.

With but two or three exceptions, there was not a girl who took offense at anything that had been said nor who thought the subject had been treated too frankly. There was, however, an almost universal demand for more plain facts. There was also a strong demand for advice regarding the attitude of one sex toward another. It is not probable that any of the biological facts or facts on personal hygiene or reproduction were too advanced for high-school pupils to grasp, but in the method of presentation it was obvious that things were not clear. There was scarcely a girl who did not say something about the big words used. One girl, when asked why she did not ask questions about the things she did not understand, said: "I couldn't remember the big words long enough to ask questions about them."

The biological method of presenting this work, if used in the regular class, where full equipment is at hand, is perhaps the best method of teaching reproduction and placing the whole subject on a basis where it may be approached from any side. Few people are disturbed by the facts of the natural history of sex.

However, biology in itself is not sufficient. Sex mistakes are generally due to ignorance and to uncontrolled instincts. A complete and comprehensive course based on biology and physiology would do much to overcome ignorance, but, when we consider the matter of controlling instincts, we need a greater inspiration than is found in biology. If we are to affect character, which will be necessary in conquering these instincts, we must use examples of the highest type and not stop short of the spiritual side of the sexual life. It is here that the heroic method advocated by Dr. Hall is of value, and the children want this method. They do not care so much to have you tell them what to do, as what others have done. One girl said: "I think the time could have been used to better advantage if she had told us what women had done and whether they did right or wrong." This work obviously belongs somewhere in the department which in some schools is called the department of health and is in no sense limited to one's physical well-being alone.

Eminent authorities find that the sexual instinct has increased rather than diminished with the growth of civilization. The school is the outgrowth of civilization. In pioneer days, education came from the home, and the more highly civilized we become the more does the school have to assume what was formerly considered the work of the home. If sex instinct has increased in direct proportion with civilization, how can the school shift this responsibility entirely on the unprepared homes, while it assumes much less vital responsibilities?

In handling this subject, we are too much impressed with the harmful side of it, and, as in teaching temperance, we have used the scare method, which only tends to inhibit the development of all the higher affections and nobility of sex.

Havelock-Ellis says: "Foolish and ignorant persons may deplore the full development which the sexual instinct has reached in civilized man; to a finer insight that development is seen to be indissolubly linked with all that is most poignant and most difficult indeed, but also that is best in human life, as we know it."

THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHYSICAL
EDUCATION AT NEWCOMB COLLEGE

CLARA GREGORY BAER, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION, NEWCOMB COLLEGE, TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA, NEW ORLEANS, LA.

In presenting this subject, one would feel impelled to plead indulgence were it not for the fact that all teachers whose years of service have given them opportunities to see their chosen work develop will recognize in the recital some of their own struggles in the past to work out their ideals— struggles that are inevitable in the birth of a new and untried element in the scheme of modern education.

Then, too, the history of a movement in any one section cannot fail to have its interest for other sections; and the growth of a subject in any special institution may be taken to mark the progress in the subject in the section of the country where this institution is located. It is with some such thoughts as these, rather than the exploiting of the work of a special school, that this paper is presented.

At present the department of hygiene and physical education at Newcomb includes the following courses: First, the regular practical work of the gymnasium, including hygienic, corrective, medical, and aesthetic gymnastics. Second, a theory course. This is a lecture course including personal and general hygiene, voice culture and expression. The department is closely allied with that of biology; and in certain years the lectures include the study of exercises from the standpoint of biology. Third, a training course for teachers providing technical instruction in kinesiology and allied subjects, with practice in teaching. This course is designed to meet the needs of those students who wish to specialize in physical education. Fourth, an extension course for teachers in connection with the regular extension work of Tulane University. These represent the result of twenty-three years' growth and development of the department of hygiene and physical education in the college. Serious gymnastic work was not undertaken at Newcomb until the fall of 1891.

About this time students from other sections of the country spending their winters in the South wanted to specialize in physical education. Newcomb, at that time, offered no such course; but the director of the gymnasium offered to take these applicants as private pupils. This continued until the fall of 1893, when provision was made to accept these