Coeducation

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a method of the liberal education of women and of men in the same college, under similar conditions, and with similar results. It is the method commonly prevailing in American colleges and universities. About three-fourths of all colleges are open to both men and women; the larger share of the remaining one-quarter are open to men only, and the balance, a small number, to women only. method of coeducation began in The Ohio seventy years ago. It has received constant enlargement. Nearly all State universities are now open to both sexes without discrimination. Since coeducation has become the rule, and since separate colleges for women have been established, a method called the co-ordinate has come into view. It represents a university in which a college for women is established, and in which a college for men is also established, each college administered as a separate unit. Yet in its administration, certain executive officers are frequently identical and the members of the two faculties may be ended as a remedy for the debility in- granted the right to exchange instruc- The more outstanding examples of this method are Barnard College in Columbia, Radcliffe in Harvard, the Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University, New Orleans, the Brown University Women's College, and the College for Women of Western Reserve University. Coeducation possesses certain advantages and disadvantages over separate education. It has the advantage of economy. Many colleges and universities of the Western States were, at their beginning, designed for both women and men, because the people, either as a community or through the churches, believed they ought not to afford two colleges in a single commonwealth. Coeducation, also, is said by its defenders to possess certain rich personal advantages. It is declared, however not without dissent, that it tends to make the male students more courteous. It is also declared that it tends to promote a high type of moral character. For women, too, it is affirmed by its adherents to have special advantages. It develops the forceful type of character, a type which the woman who is to make her way in the world should embody. It is also believed by some that the freer life of the coeducational college tends to do away with fret, and morbidness, and worry, results which are not unknown when women are educated in a group separated from other groups. Women, themselves graduates of a coeducational college, are very emphatic in their belief in its exceptional worthiness. One says: "I believe that intellectually both sexes are stimulated and helped by association with each other, and that morally the habits of each are improved or kept from deteriorating, as is too frequently the case when either sex gets together in large numbers. There is set up a healthful interchange of thought and magnetic attraction between the sexes, which, when not debased, adds the chief charm to society and lays the foundation for the greatest spiritual development and inspiration of both." Another declares: "It does away with much false modesty that afflicts girls who are kept to themselves, while it does not in the least detract from a girl's true modesty and refinement." Another says: " It leads to a broader sym pathy, a truer understanding between men and women; and it tends to banish that consciousness of sex which is inimical to purity of mind." Another graduate declares: "It makes them stronger men and women; they understand each other better; judge of character better; give a higher mutual respect. It takes the simpering out of girls-the roughness out of men." Two or three disadvantages are, however, to be noted. The coeducational college is more difficult to administer than the separate, and it is the more difficult in proportion to the intimacy of relationship existing between the two sets of students. Different degrees of intimacy are common in coeducation. Simple presence of men and women in common recitation room represent one extreme. The presence, not only in the recitation room, but in the dining hall of the college and in amusements, represents the other extreme. As the intimacy becomes close and personal, the difficulty of administration for deans and presidents greatly increases. Another disadvantage of coeducation lies in the content of instruction. Certain topics in psychology, in biology, in archæology, which are perfectly proper for presentation to a class of men alone, or to a class of women alone, would offer serious difficulties in presentation to a class of both women and men. A further consideration which would be reckoned by some as an advantage, and by others as a disadvantage, relates to the college of this type as promoting marriage, or marriage at an early age. On the whole, marriages are more common among women educated in the same coeducational college than among the graduates of the separate women's college. The disadvantage lies, be it added, not in the becoming married, but rather in the becoming married at an age when neither party is quite qualified to assume the obligations of a family. American life is greatly enriched by the yearly addition of thousands of liberally educated women, most of whom come from the coeducational college. There are at least six advantages which American life receives from such a contribution. First, the college woman adds a mind trained to think. Second, she also brings a heart, sympathetic with all human problems, and yet not over-sympathetic. She is not a merely emotional interpreter of social conditions. With an intellect qualified to think and discriminate, she unites a heart which feels the significance of crises. Third, she is able to offer economic suggestions regarding the processes of government. Fourth, she also helps to supply that vital lack, the need of humanizing industrialism. Fifth, she promotes the giving of a broad freedom for women in all forms of public life and service. In the recent political enfranchisement, the just. interpretation and application of su freedom is of special significance. Sixtu, she represents the great advantage through her education of the prolongation of the period of youth. The young women of America are liable to begin their life's work at a too early age. Civilization desires that all those who can promote its welfare shall have a proper degree of maturity. The longer the period of youth, the richer and the more efficient is the contribution which one, coming to maturity, is able to make to worthiest human life and endeavor. This article has primary reference to colleges of liberal learning. In the professional schools of medicine and of law, women are received more commonly than obtains in the undergraduate college. The progress made in admitting women to professional schools has been especially great in the last decade.