El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-11-12
An Education Expert Shows
How to Teach Children Sc
crets Of the Sex Through
Plant Experiments.


Baltimore, Nd, Nov. 1.-THE confer
! ence for the prevention of infant NOR
! tality has adjourned after a three
days session full of interest Last
evenings session was one of the most
! instructive of the entire meeting, and
the speakers were almost all educa-
tors who denounced the lack of in
formation impaired to children in the
schools Of today along lines that will
help to make them healthy.
DR.. Llewellys F. Barker, of the
Johns Hopkins Medical school. and
chairman of the committee on eugenics
of the medical and chirurgical faculty
| of Maryland said: "The healthiest
mode of approach to questions related
to sex is through study of plant and
animal life. The two great factors
of life, heredity and environment can
be brought before students in a wholly
unobjectionable way, and the analogy
Of human life is so obvious that the
principles learned will almost surely
be transferred in due time by the
learner to the human domain.
Observation and. experiment, even if
limited to a few fundamental points
will be far more fruitful than didac-
tic lectures. Let teachers-to--b OBJ
serve for themselves the influence of
external conditions in causing changes
in the structure of plants and animals,
let them note the responses of living
substances to heat, light, oxygen, food
substances, poisons and infectious
agents, and they will quickly realize
the Importance of a well-regulated en-
Vironment for the welfare of human
life. Again, let them study pollen and
ovule microscopicaily, observe the pro-
cess of plant fertilization, and the de-
velopment Of the plant embryo, or per-
init them to watch frogs eggs, fish
eggs, hens eggs, and to follow the
embryos through their various stages
and you have chozen the easiest way
to initiate them normally into a
knowledge of the mysteries of sex. of
impregnation and conception, OF birth
and development
Significance of Heredity.
Experimental hybridizing in swee.
peas or in colonies of mice quickly
opens the mind to the significance of
heredity. and surely nothing is more
likely to awaken conscience to the
duty and privilege of the human race
of improving the quality of the chill
dren born than some acquaintance
with the laws of heredity, and espe-
cially with the rules of Mendel re-
garding the Inheritance of particular
qualities
Teachers trained in biology can in
diligently instruct pupils in personal
and public hygiene; and will do much.
often in an indirect way. TO make it
clear to children that the future Of
the race depends on the quality of the
children born, and this depends on the
inherent qualities of their parents.
If the teachers in our schools knew
that drunkards, lunatics, idiots. pros
titutes and habitual criminals are such
because In the majority of instances
they have been born with defective
nervous systems; and If they knew
that such drunkards, lunatics. idiots,
prostitutes and habitual criminals are
more likely to breed their kind than
to have healthy offspring, we should
have taken a large step forward in
that education of public opinion, which
will be necessary before we can pass
laws which will prohibit parenthood to
the VIGOROUSLY unfit"
Learning Hygiene.
Asserting that too much attention is
paid to n-essentials and too little
TO the principles of right living in the
teaching Of hygiene in the normal
schools, DR.. Helen c. Putnam of Proyi-
dence, chairman of the session on edu-
cational prevention. in the opening adj
dress at that session, chara cterized the
present methods of teaching hygiene as
'lamentable."
1T is imperative that normal in
struction enable students to pass ex-
aminations for licenses to teach" she
said. These examinations in hygiene
and sanitation therefore set the pace
for instruction. Ninety three percent
of their questions in physiology and
hygiene are in anatomy. Less than
seven in 100 are on healthful living
and 1 have seen examination papers
that contained none at ALL
Some normal pupils, and, alas, some
children in consequence, can repeat or
draw the anatomy of the eye or ear
more in detail than the general practi-
toner of medicine, who is 10 years be-
yond the examination stage; but all
three-teachers, children and doctors
will sit through a session in foul air
at rs degrees Fahrenheit in December"
Teaching Parents.
Prof. Jessie Phelps of the depart
ment of biology of the Michigan State
Normal college, spoke of the educa-
tional possibilities in the prevention
of infant mortality afforded by the
study of biologic science in normal
schools. Particular emphasis was put
on the imperative right of the child to
be well born, well cared for and prop
erly instructed in the laws of life.
Graduates were urged to form parents
CluDS III connection Win Lne1r SCHOOLS
for instruction in child culture. "A
widespread knowledge of biologic
laws Miss Phelps said, ''is funda-
mental to the removal of many Of the
causes which produce infant mortality,
and it is bound to create a healthier
attitude toward marriage and parent
hood, which means deeper civic
sense, a wider world consciousness and
a truer race pride. 1t will help also
to eliminate many of our social diff
culties, such as divorce, prostitution
and childless marriages"
BiOIOgic Knowledge.
DR.. Willard S. Small, lecturer on
hygiene at the George Washington uni
versity, Washington, in discussing the
teaching of hygiene said that empha-
sis should be placed on the processes
of life rather than on anatomy. Edu-
cation should have it firmly in mind |
that vitality, endurance and healthy |
functioning Of the human mechanism |
are in themselves what schools must |
promote throughout the country. ITO |
do this" he said, requires a better |
directed study Of biologic science than |
is customary. To be effective, all |
study Of school hygiene must have |
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