The highest endowment of the human spirit on the intellectual side is the power to think. Learning to think is an essential process and end in all school work. Thinking is the intellect’s regal activity. In a vague way, all teaching appeals to the thought-activity of the pupil; but vagueness in teaching is as pernicious as it is common. To exhibit the value, scope, and process of thought is of inestimable service to the teacher. It gives specific direction to teaching processes, and saves the child from a thousand fanciful expedients.

Cinsiyet ve üreme, canlı yaşamının sürekliliğini sağlar. İnsanlarda cinsellik doğumla başlar ve tüm yaşam boyunca devam eder. Cinsel kimlik, kişinin biyolojik cinsiyetinden farklı olarak kendisini kadın ya da erkek olarak algılamasıdır. Sağlıklı bir cinsel kimlik gelişiminde cinsel kimlik, kişinin cinsiyetinden haberdar olması, cinsiyetine uygun davranışlar göstermesi ve bundan mutluluk duyması önemlidir.

Cinsel eğitim bireyin fiziksel, duygusal ve cinsel gelişimini anlaması olumlu bir kişilik kavramı geliştirmesi, insan cinselliğine, başkalarının haklarına, görüş ve davranışlarına saygılı bir bakış açısı edinmesi ve olumlu davranış biçimi, değer yargıları geliştirmesi eğitimidir.

Cinsel eğitimde öncelikle anne babaların eğitimi hedeflenmelidir. Aksi takdirde anne babaların istemediği takdirde çocuklar ya da ergenler istemediği kişilerden bilgi edinebilir, gözetleme, takip etme yoluna başvurabilirler, yaşıtlarından bilgi alabilirler, kendi başlarına deneyler yapabilirler. Ailede başlayan cinsel eğitim okulda da sistemli bir şekilde sürmelidir.

Ülkemiz gibi cinsel eğitim konusuna tedirgin, çekingen, korkak yaklaşılan, ayıp günah sayılan ülkelerde bu sorumluluk daha da artmaktadır. Sorumluluğun kapsamında sadece çocuklar gençler değil her yaştan her sosyo-ekonomik ve sosyo-kültürel düzeyden insanların olması gerekmektedir. Bu kitabın anne babalara öğretmenlere öğretmen adaylarına ve konuyla ilgilenen herkese yararlı olması dilerim.

That any rational and accountable being should ever have been found to oppose the progress of truth, is truly humiliating; yet every page of history, which records the developement of new principles, exhibits also the outbreakings of prejudice and selfishness. The deductions of Galileo, of Newton, of Harvey, and innumerable others, have been opposed and denounced, each in its turn; while their promoters have been vilified as empyrics or innovators. Nor has this been done by those only whose self love or worldly interests prompted them to exclude the truth, but by good and honourable men, whose prejudices were strong, and whose zeal was not guided by discretion. Such persons have frequently been found to shut their eyes against the plainest truths, to wrestle with their own convictions, and positively refuse even to listen to evidence. The same thing may happen with regard to education;—and this is no pleasing prospect to the lover of peace, who sets himself forward as a reformer in this noble work.—Change is inevitable. Teaching is an art; and it must, like all the other arts, depend for its improvement upon the investigations of science. Now, every one knows, that although the cultivation of chemistry, and other branches of natural science, has, of late years, given an extraordinary stimulus to the arts, yet the science of education, from which the art of teaching can alone derive its power, is one, beyond the threshold of which modern philosophy has scarcely entered. Changes, therefore, both in the theory and practice of teaching, may be anticipated;—and that these changes will be inconvenient and annoying to many, there can be no doubt. That individuals, in these circumstances, should be inclined to deprecate and oppose these innovations and improvements, is nothing more than might be expected; but that the improvements themselves should on that account be either postponed or abandoned, would be highly injurious. An enlightened system of education is peculiarly the property of the public, on which both personal, family, and national happiness in a great measure depends. These interests therefore must not be sacrificed to the wishes or the convenience of private individuals. The prosperity and happiness of mankind are at stake; and the welfare of succeeding generations will, in no small degree, be influenced by the establishment of sound principles in education at the present time. Nothing, therefore, should be allowed to mystify or cripple that science, upon which the spread and the permanence of all useful knowledge mainly rest.