SEX INSTRUCTION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 209, 25 June 1943, Page 3

SEX INSTRUCTION

Sir,-Replying to "Out of the Everywhere" on the subject of sex instruction for children, may I say that when I referred to the sex muddle I meant the muddle that human society had made of sex, Sex in the animal kingdom is perfectly straightforward, But human beings lifted themselves above the animal kingdom and became civilised. Civilisation demanded that certain instincts, among them the instinct of sex, should be repressed. In order that this repression should be observed by the mass of the people, the question of sex was taken up by religious organisations, and a series of taboos was placed upon the subject. The result of these religious taboos has been a consciousness of sin, even, in many cases, in legitimate marital relations, The policy of suppression led to an altogether false situation. It was not only indulgence in sex that was bad, but also knowledge of sex. In fact, we tried to tell ourselves that sex did not exist. For the past 30 years we have been emerging from that slough, For no matter what convention tells us, our lives are coloured by sex, and if we deny its existence, we must after a time either rebel or become the victims of a sex complex. The best way to straighten out the muddle, in my opinion, is to bring the subject into the open, examine it, see how best, in the light of modern knowledge, to reconcile the -sex instinct with civilised living, and then see that our children are instructed accordingly.

M. R.

KENT

(Kohu Kohu).

(This correspondence is now closed.-Ed.)