We used to have a “Parents’ Class” in Sunday School, in the early 20th century. This was not in addition to doctrinal or scriptural classes; it was the class for adults. Not all adults went to Sunday School in those days; it wasn’t expected of them. This class provided a forum for parents to decide what improvements were needed in their communities, and then organize to bring about those changes. The 1911 Parents’ Class in one Sunday School organized a successful campaign to raise the cost of liquor licenses in their small town to the point where the loss of profits caused saloons to close. Another Parents’ Class used the Sunday School to motivate their school district to modernize by selecting “six of the livest young men of the community” to serve as trustees; these trustees “were chosen more for their learning and experience in education” than for the prominence on the tax rolls; under the Parents’ Class prodding, their two-room school was replaced by graded classes and the first year of high school classes. There was obviously a broader conception of the purposes and powers of Sunday School in that era!

Not every Parents’ Class was so ambitious. The Sunday School Board offered suggestions for vital issues that parents could address in their own homes. In 1912, the suggestions addressed “pure parenthood … home in the highest sense [and] healthy and virtuous children.”

“The intent of the lessons offered,” they said, “is obviously not to teach any new doctrine on these points, but to reteach and reinforce the good old life-giving principles of the gospel. Our parents seem to need those truths taught straight. Our children need them even worse.”

Those “good old life-giving principles,” that “straight” talk, was devoted that year to

The Sex Problem.

Milton Bennion, Professor of Philosophy, University of Utah.

In the general moral awakening of the last decade, the problem of conservation has assumed a prominent place. It has been manifest in politics in the campaign for the conservation of natural resources of the earth; in the multiplication and elaboration of public educational institutions is manifest the desire to conserve all the latent powers of all the children of all the people; the Anti-Tuberculosis movement, the pure food laws, the promotion of scientific agriculture and the school garden, all these are only aspects of the general interest in conservation.

It is the opinion of many serious students of human life that of all the problems of conservation, that of sex is the greatest. The resources of the earth are to be conserved for the use of man; the tuberculosis germ is to be exterminated for the protection of man; educational institutions have value only in respect to the number and quality of the new generation of human beings to be educated. The primary factor in determining this last and most essential condition of all human endeavor is the promotion of moral and physical health in matters of sex.

It is a fortunate provision of nature that pollution of the sources of life through venereal disease tends to produce sterility, and thus to exterminate those who become its victims. Unfortunately, however, this process is sometimes slow, and the diseased are permitted to reproduce their kind; thus vile disease may be transmitted to the third and fourth generation before extermination is complete.

What part the prevalence of venereal disease played in the fall of great historic peoples is in part a matter of speculation. We are justified, doubtless, in the conclusion that it had much to do with the decline of the Greeks and Romans, among whom sexual immorality was notorious. On the other hand the strict sexual morality of the Jews has doubtless had much to do with the perpetuation and multiplication of that race, notwithstanding their political disasters.

What is the cause of, and what is the cure for this vile plague? The cause is contact, usually sexual or otherwise intimate, of the diseased with the healthy. The most effectual cure is prevention, and prevention lies in removal of the cause. These simple facts constitute the fundamentals of instruction that should be taught in the most impressive way to every budding youth. This teaching should, of course, include a knowledge of the terrible consequences both to the individual and to the race of the prevalence of venereal diseases. This knowledge may be used in support of the divine commandments in respect to chastity. It may be shown that in absolute chastity, according to the highest religious sanctions, is the only safety, and that these religious laws are amply supported by the facts of sex hygiene. Care should be taken, however, not to reduce the law of chastity entirely to a question of hygiene. It is much more than that. It has to do also with the preservation in purity of family relationships and responsibilities, with control of the bodily appetites and passions, and with the development of the higher spiritual nature of man. In the realization of these aims sexual control and conservation is a very important factor.

Improving the Human Race by Careful Marriage.

By Amy B. Eaton, Instructor in Sociology, University of Utah.

We are just developing the new science of Eugenics which seeks to secure better men and women through careful marriages. Certainly this problem is one that concerns us all; few of us have not the immediate problem of marriage ourselves, or if not, the opportunity to help and advise others as they are choosing their mates.

The lesson Eugenics seeks to teach is that it is the religious duty of every healthy individual to produce beautiful and healthy offspring. This can only be done certainly when the individual has full knowledge of all that marriage and parenthood involves and a full understanding of the particular facts before marriage is entered into in any particular case. We choose carefully our best seeds, our swiftest horses, the best breeds of our cattle in order to improve the species of our plants and the breeds of our horses and cattle. Likewise should we not choose even more carefully when we are considering the creation of the highest and most sacred gift of life, “the human plant”?

And what is the result when we do not choose carefully? We learn from Dr. Davenport’s book on Eugenics of the 42 institutions for feeble-minded, our 115 schools and homes for the deaf and blind, our 350 hospitals for the insane, our 1,200 refuge homes, our 1,300 prisons, our 1,500 hospitals and our 2,500 alms houses. These are filled by 300,000 insane and feeble-minded, 160,000 blind or deaf, 2,000,000 annually cared for in our hospitals and homes, 80,000 prisoners and 100,000 paupers. This three-fourths per cent of our population is a fearful drag on our civilization; and think of the untold misery it implies! Shall we as intelligent people, proud of our control of nature in other respects, do nothing but vote more taxes or be satisfied with the great gifts or bequests of philanthropists? While we realize that much of this suffering is caused by unfortunate social conditions, we also recognize that much of it is the result of improper marriages. What if the 30 millions annually spent on hospitals, 20 millions on insane asylums, 20 millions for alms houses, 13 millions for prisons, and 5 millions on the defectives of our country could only be diverted to the prevention of all such misfortunes. Should we not earnestly study this problem and then instruct our young people that they at least shall enter on the sacred duties of parenthood equipped with full knowledge and understanding? Eugenics seeks mainly to study the hereditary qualities and we recognize the full value of its teaching, but we wish to consider even more, — the influence of the environment also. The most profound influences of our lives are the parents who bring us into the world, and the homes in which they bring us up. Heredity and environment — in the blending of these two into one powerful force for good lies the solution of many of our most baffling social problems.

Lesson I. Courtship and Marriage.

1. What common courting practices are bringing shame and sin to our homes?

2. To what extent are parents responsible for these practices?

3. What uplifting pastimes in the home can be substituted to keep within sensible bounds the “sparking habit?”

4. How can the “beau” habit be kept from forming too early in children?

5. What can parents do to guard their children from impure and undesirable companionship?

6. Why are we constantly admonished by our leaders to marry within our own Church membership? What are some of the fruits of disobedience to this counsel?

7. What can be done to check the tendency to marry outside the temple? What are the dangers of such worldly marriages?

Lesson II. Parenthood.

1. How does the instinct for maternity manifest itself in girls? How best can this instinct be cultivated and kept in purity?

2. Can the soul of modern women be so perverted as to lose this divine instinct? What are the results of enforced barrenness?

3. How can parents implant the feeling in their sons and daughters that will make them accept the responsibilities of pure parenthood?

4. What does “fatherhood” and “motherhood” in the gospel teachings mean?

5. What can be done to stem the tide of worldly wickedness that is bringing a childless, homeless condition upon humanity?

6. What are the wages of these evils? What are the rewards of noble, self-sacrificing parenthood?

Additional Subjects for Discussion.

Protecting our Home.

1. In some states the law provides that a certificate of physical purity may be demanded of those who seek to marry. Discuss the value of such a law as a protection to our sons and daughters.

Preparing for Parenthood.

2. What instructions to prepare for parenthood should be given boys and girls?

(a) In the home.

(b) In the church organizations.

(c) In the schools.

Our Schools and the Sex Problem.

3. How can the dangers that come from free association of all classes of children in school be lessened? What can the schools do to best help the parents in these vital matters?