Margaret Sanger

“ As the children had been taught the lives of the mother flowers, frogs, birds, bees and mammals, there was no reason why the history of woman should not be taken up until they were ready for older work.
They loved to hear about this, and it seemed just as interesting to them as the other stories.
It is important that mothers teach children the true history of the race, and get the seed of truth planted for future cultivation. ”

“ Teach the child that there is no shame in nature. Mothers should never say “shame on you” when a child exposes any part of its body.
Always allow perfect freedom in his acts and affections. Teach him that love and affection are beautiful, and let him follow his impulses in these. Never make children kiss people for “form’s” sake, either aunts or uncles or any others; let them alone in this for their instincts are keener, often, than ours.
It was not until all the familiar birds had gone that their thoughts turned to the higher stage, the mammals. ”

“ Biologically speaking, these creative powers are the most important functions of the body, but they are the only functions of the human body which are utterly ignored by both parents and teachers.
In order to perpetuate the species, nature has endowed all animals with sexual instinct, and man is the only animal who is ashamed of this instinct. Man is the only animal who voluntarily limits his offspring, though he continues in his sexual relation. Man, and man alone, is the only animal who is subject to disease directly inimical to the integrity of the organs of reproduction. ”

“ Toad has within her body a little nest where little seeds or eggs have been kept and have been growing, and now that the time has come when they need awakening to a new life, they need life from the Father Frog just as the buttercup needed pollen from the stamen. ”

“ The same in the morning; do not allow children to remain in bed after they have awakened; do not have the bed too soft or the coverings too heavy; the room should be cool and he should lie on his side rather than on the back. Keep his mind busy with interest. Get him to call you whenever he feels the temptation, or to come where others are. If he will trust the mother and together fight this habit, he will soon be the victor. Always it is the same—confidence, confidence, is such a necessary part of the child’s life. ”

“ The boys were shown that as soon as the seeds begin to grow, the petals, on the mother flower, begin to wither, and it seemed as if the flower gave of its beauty, form and youth in order that the baby seeds should grow and mature. ”

“ Then the pollen clings to the stigma, and down it goes through its tiny tube, to the little nest of ovules, or seeds, where it mates and at once causes the seeds to become alive. Then they grow and grow until their time comes to burst forth and develop new plants themselves.
Now, it is also important that the little visitors who come for the nectar, or honey, should fly from flower to flower and not crawl, because in doing so the pollen would drop off and never reach the mother flower, who is anxiously awaiting this important substance, so that the little seeds, or babies, may begin to grow. ”

“ Bird was more active and more intelligent than Mrs. Frog or Toad; that altogether she was a higher creature than either the flower, the fish or the frog; that all father birds and all father creatures on up the scale of development use greater care to fertilize the egg than either Mr. Buttercup, Mr. Fish, Mr. Toad or Mr. Frog. For, instead of fertilizing it in the water, or with the help of the insects or wind, the egg of the higher 30creatures is fertilized while still in the mother’s body.
Just like the flowers, Mrs. Bird has an ovary, where the little seeds or eggs are kept. ”

“ If this has been done, 58when they take up the study of the birds more could be told them of the sexual parts; that as some day he was to be a father he was made differently than mother or sister because he had a different part to do in life’s work. That he must keep well and grow strong in order to do this work. There need be no mystery about the sexual truths; impress upon it the sacredness of the process. There is no greater crime against a child than for a parent to allow a child to flounder about with half truths, gathered from polluted and corrupt associates. ”

“ How the queen bee leaves her home amidst the hundreds of male bees who are all anxious to be the father of the future hive. How she rambles about for a little while, then up she flies—up, up, straight into the clouds with hundreds of male bees following. Gradually the weakest bees drop off and return, but the stronger ones still follow until there are often only two male bees left in the race. The weaker of the two 46returns and the strongest bee of the whole hive wins the queen bee, and fertilizes the eggs within her body. ”

“ Mothers, keep in mind, the beauty and wonder of it all, and as you proceed in the study of the mechanism of the reproductive organs of human beings you cannot but impress upon the child the beauty and wonder of love. ”

“ Early in the summer months, the frog orchestra seems well tuned, but as the cold days come on the toads crawl into a hole, making it as they go, while the frogs go into the mud to sleep through the winter, out of reach of frost and snow, where they lie dormant until the spring air shall again inspire them with the joy of living. ”

“ Every mother can teach her children the truth if she only knows it herself, and has the right attitude toward it. She can elaborate on this plan or outline as much as she wishes, but 54she must get down to the child’s world in order to make her teachings impressive and successful. The one unpardonable sin on the part of a mother is to let her children learn the truth elsewhere than from her own lips. ”

“ They were told that in smaller animals many more eggs develop at a time and are fertilized but in the larger animals such as cows, horses, elephants, etc., only one egg develops and one animal is born. In man, too, this is true. One egg develops at a time, and if it is fertilized it remains in its little nest (or uterus) , and grows until it is ready to stand the changed conditions into which it must come after it is born. ”

“ Toad (or Frog) feels the eggs are to be expelled, he comes very close to her, and in order to fertilize every egg before it goes into the water, he holds her fast behind the arm, and as they are expelled he pours over them his life giving fluid, which enters every tiny egg and gives it life—a new life.
In a few days the eggs begin to grow; they are all incased in a colorless, transparent jellylike substance, which serves as food for the tadpole while forming, and also for protection. They are spherical in shape, and in ten days the pond will swarm with tiny tadpoles. ”

“ Children differ so greatly, that it is impossible to lay down any rules as to what and how much should be told at any age.
Some children are very curious, and very receptive always, while others have little curiosity and even when told sex truths, pay little attention to the telling, or seem little impressed by it.
It is for each mother to do as she finds advisable. Children will often ask a question very seriously and before one can formulate an answer, another question has been asked on another entirely different subject. ”

“ They have little ones, which when born are not in the form of eggs, like the frogs or birds, but have the same shape as their parents, though smaller and weaker. The mother mammal nurses these little ones with milk secreted from glands, called mammary glands. And that is why they are called “mammals.”
Their instincts are highly developed, and they are considered the highest animals.
Many instances were shown them of the meaning of instinct, as that of the mother bird turning over her eggs every day. ”

“ After this act of reproduction he dies, and Mrs. Bee returns to her hive and lays thousands of bee eggs. The strongest gave his life that the future bees should be given his great strength.
The children were sad about this. They wanted the strongest to live, and it was now the place to teach them of their own bodies, what cleanliness and strength means to the future race of man.
To give the children an idea of the shape of the uterus, Bobby’s mother took a pear, turned the large side up, letting the stem part hang down, it was then cut open lengthwise, the seeds, core and stem removed. ”

“ Fish.
There is no doubt that the words “cold-blooded,” as applied to frogs and toads, hit the mark, for there is not the slightest affection or sympathy shown or felt for their own kind. They give no care or concern to the eggs after they are deposited, and the “polly-wog” has to depend on himself.
Nature seems to have given them but one instinct relative to their kind, and that is the one blind impulse or instinct of reproduction. ”

“ Teach that no part of the body should be touched unnecessarily by any one, and when there is any discomfort of any kind to come to the mother, who will attend to it. See that no clothing on the child is tight or causes irritation, for this often leads a child to touch and handle himself and forms the habit of masturbation. ”

“ The flowers that are fertilized by the insects are called “insect loving.” Those that are fertilized by the wind are called “wind loving,” etc.
The buttercup was thought not to need the insects to carry its pollen to the stigma—it was for some time thought to be what is called self-fertilizing. But the discovery of the small sac of nectar shows that it must have a purpose, and that purpose to attract insects to bring pollen from other father flowers to fertilize the tiny seeds. ”

“ It is of great assistance for a mother to have some knowledge of the processes of assimilation so that the children will learn how the food products in the blood, instead of supplying the mother, go to the child to build up bone, muscle, nerves and tissues. ”

“ Thrush was a most interesting father for the children to observe, for he fought off any bird who ventured too near Mrs. Thrush’s nest. For birds there are who are too lazy to build their own nests, and boldly take possession of any nest they can. ”

“ Every child first turns to its mother in confidence for all these questions. Never turn him off with a slight or embarrassed answer; just rely upon your knowledge, your natural knowledge, and answer him. Every mother can do it. Do not make a Sunday School lesson of these teachings, only to be taught once a week on very solemn occasions. Children hate being 59talked at; just be natural, simple, interesting, informal, and as often as the opportunity arrives. ”

“ Every parent knows that at one day their little boy or girl will have matured into the possessor of the powers of procreation, yet they fail to teach the child how to care for, or how to regard these powers they possess. ”

“ The fact that people lived together very closely; that the woman had great freedom in choosing the man whom she wished to be the father of her child, even as freely as the animals chose their mates; that in this freedom great mistakes were often made, such as that for a period some mothers chose their sons or brothers, or fathers to be the father of the new little one ”

“ As soon as the little opossum is born, Mother Opossum picks him up in her mouth and places him in her pouch, where he sucks away at the milk which is secreted there, until he is strong and able to get food for himself—which is about the same length of time that other mammals carry their young before giving birth to them. ”

“ But the flower cannot move about as can animals, so they must depend on insects and outsiders to bring the pollen into the little nest where the eggs are. But unless there is some object attracting insects, bees, moths and butterflies, etc., to visit the flowers, they would not come to them, so the flowers have many attractions, such as their color and their odor. ”

“ That the seeds are hidden way back in the abdomen and when she grows big enough the seeds will grow also and she too may be a mother of little boys and girls.
That the pollen in the boy is kept in the scrotum until he grows up big and strong, when it too will be ready to add life to little seeds and then become the father of strong boys and girls. ”

“ They had seen that after the pollen reaches the seeds, that they are given new life, that they remain right in their little nest and are nourished by the pistil or mother flower, until they are full grown or matured. ”

“ When a child is under four years of age is the ideal time to gain this confidence, for then there is nothing personal in anything you say; all interests are general. There is no shyness or consciousness of sex. ”

“ Anything alive he will eat. The toad is, therefore, a great help to the farmer, and no little boy would 25ever harm a toad if he but understood what a helpful creature he is in the garden.
The frog labors under many disadvantages, as well as having many enemies. The first great disadvantage is that he is neither a water creature, like the fish, nor a land creature like the reptile; so that his struggle for existence is very hard. ”

“ The other birds seemed most sympathetic, and on one occasion Mr. Robin watched the sparrow house while Mr. Sparrow chased the wooer of his wife. This was the last time, for Mrs. Sparrow never again returned to her family.
No other birds ever went near that tree wherein the lone “widower” dwelled. He seemed greatly respected by the other birds. He taught his little ones to fly and where to find the choicest food in Bobby’s garden. The children insisted on caging the cats for a few weeks so that Father Sparrow would not have this extra burden on him. ”

“ The stigma is not always ready to accept the pollen, but when it is ready it becomes moist, and in some flowers sticky, which shows it is in condition to accept the pollen or is ready to mate and that the seeds are ready for their development. ”