The Psychology of it
- Author:
Charles Keen Taylor, M.A.
Philadelphia, Pa.
If there is one point upon which most of us agree, it is the statement that the morale of our American young people is not what it should or could be; and moral education “conferences,” lecturers, educators, physicians, and social workers almost unitedly tell us that the grand and only remedy is instruction in sex hygiene. All agree that the home is the best place for this instruction, but that the home is not giving it, that many homes are incapable of so doing, and therefore the school should do it?yes, down to the first grade.
It is likely that all these well-intentioned folk are making a profound mistake, and for many children perhaps a most unfortunate one. The mistake consists in believing in the fatal delusion that moral reform can be encouraged by teaching “facts,” and that by means of a mere knowledge of anatomy and special hygiene a child’s character can be made and kept clean, strong, and uncontaminated. Let it be said at once that the immorality found in varying degrees among young people and children is not nearly so much caused by a lack of knowledge, as by a lack of a strong moral stamina, a fundamental power of resistance, which would enable the possessor to stand firm against the common temptations. Along with the lack of moral strength there is another cause making for the downfall of many. Even before adolescence, and particularly during that critical stage, many influences, in the home and without it, tend to develop in the children a precocious sex interest and a leaning toward sensuality. In other words, from early childhood for a great number of children, and especially those in well-to-do homes, there is a long series of influences, each one of which has probably little effect, but the cumulative strength of which is exceedingly great. Let us consider a number of these influences. The first to come are generally those developed by ill-chosen games. Properly planned play is of immense value in the mental, moral, and physical development of a child. The only games likely to be ultimately bad in their effects are those founded on sex interest and difference, such as the so-called kissing games, which in themselves, as played by young children, mean very little. Parents often watch such games and exclaim over the “pretty sight.” No doubt the children are innocent as can be, but even then these games have a distinct psychic effect in starting a sex interest and in encouraging familiarity. Again, parents frequently aid in the precocious sex interest by pairing off the boys and girls at children’s parties, just as adults are paired off, and again it is doubtless a “pretty sight” to see the couples of miniature men and women, aping the manners of grown-up men and women. The distinctions are often emphasized by more or less teasing concerning “sweethearts,” “beaux” and the like. It may seem silly and hypersensitive to recognize any psychic effect in such matters, or even in the direct teasing of young children concerning their “beaux” and “best girls.” But again let it be said that while in themselves such influences might mean little, every impression and suggestion goes to the making of character, and it is the cumulative effect which concerns us.
When children are from five to eleven years old comes dancing. With people of moderate means this period is likely to be put off a few years, but the well-to-do support thousands of semi-fashionable dancing schools for children of this age and older?all under the pleasing idea that dancing will give them grace and poise. Perhaps it will, but it frequently brings less desirable gifts also. Be it understood,?the best authorities give dancing a high rank as a cultural and moral factor of great value. But the great value is in the “open” dance, including many beautiful folk dances the practicing of which would be most valuable for children. But outside of some progressive public schools such dances are not common. Instead, in the vast majority of dancing schools, we see matters conducted as among men and women, the children acting like adults as nearly as possible and being treated as such. Would we not rather see children acting like children and being treated like children? It is most unpleasant to see youngsters of twelve, thirteen, or fourteen years posturing and acting with the blase assurance of sophisticated and weary adults,?to say nothing of the effect of the common “round dance” and particularly its later variations. As exercise these movements have little appeal, the main interest being a sensual one built upon sex instinct and interest, and early adolescence is distinctly not the time for stimulating such instincts and interest. The physical contact and its accompanying familiarity is the basic fault of these dances, and the harm they have done even among young children is far greater than is supposed by admiring parents and chaperons who look on approvingly in groups around the walls. True it is that the children are very often quite innocent of wrong thought, though they often are not. Even if a wrong idea or impulse never enters their minds, there is nevertheless a strong sex stimulation, which adds greatly to the cumulative effect we are studying. Sex stimulation has its proper and necessary place and time, but it is the wrong time for it when, in the bewilderment of early adolescence, children find themselves possessed of a whole new world of instincts and feelings of great power, over which control has not yet been gained, and concerning which little useful knowledge has been acquired.
At this very critical time other malign influences make themselves felt. For instance, there are the moving pictures to which all of us swarm by the hundred thousand. The moving picture is doubtless one of the most important educational methods discovered in a century, as well as the bringer of much clean enjoyment to young and old. On the other hand, what is the most common type of picture, leaving out those openly obscene or suggestive? Is it not the so-called “love drama”? Usually these are very clean and decent, though too often they are the reverse. But even if entirely clean and proper, what is their effect upon children? It is not difficult to say. The result is an increasing of sex instinct and feeling, and though the cffect upon adults might be negligible or even good, upon the adolescent child the cumulative effect of even the best pictures is far stronger that we usually imagine, and as for the effect of suggestive pictures?it is no wonder that young folk in their ‘teens leave such exhibitions with resistance diminished and with their minds in a psychic whirl of sex-consciousness. And we have not yet taken into account the effect of seeing, day after day, a common portrayal of what should be an almost sacred mystery. The sacredness and mystery are destroyed and imitation becomes an easy step. Allied to the moving-picture influence is that of the commoner type of vaudeville, where may be seen dancing and costumes of an entirely sensual appeal, and where suggestive jokes and songs are the rule rather than the exception. Children go in swarms to the vaudeville. The vaudeville and the theater?the latter through its recent open attempt to commercialize the present abnormal interest in sex questions, have much to answer for.
Another unfortunate influence is that of that kind of newspaper which publishes every nasty detail of every possible scandal? and children have a great way of reading such articles. Then there is a type of paper which on one page prints woeful editorials concerning the poor downtrodden workingman, and on the very next prints quack advertisements of a disgusting nature, which are often traps for the sons of those very workingmen. Many journals realize their responsibility as educational factors in their communities, and there are many whose names would be recognized from one end of the country to the other as strong influences for good. Unfortunately, all are not of that type.
Other influences might be mentioned, such as the suggestive jokes and pictures so abundant in some of our comic weeklies and Sunday supplements, in which the commonest subject is marital infidelity or strife. Children cannot respect relations which are continually held up to ridicule. Yet another decided influence is the fashion of dressing our young girls, who sometimes might be fourteen, twenty-four, or even forty, as far as could be told from a distance of a hundred yards. The present bad taste in dress is at once the result of an excessive sex-feeling and a partial cause of it. This is an incomplete but amply sufficient list of many influences which, beginning in early childhood, have a final powerful cumulative effect which makes for a leaning toward sensuality and a precocious sex-interest,?two forces that have much to do with the genesis of the great modern wave of immorality. Acting with these is that other great cause,?a lack of moral strength sufficient to resist and overcome the temptations which our children must meet with every day of their lives.
Where is the responsibility? In your heart of hearts, if you are a parent, it is just possible that you may know where the greater part of the responsibility lies.
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