Co-Education

The mixing of the sexes in education is natural preparation for the mixing which will take place later. It was formerly prevalent in Scotland, is in vogue in the United States of America, and has been adopted in several private and most State-aided schools in this country.
The feminine mind gains from association with boys and men, the masculine from association with girls and women. The character develops more rapidly and shyness diminishes. Competition is greater between the sexes than between rivals of the same sex, so that higher standards of achievement are reached.
The presence of both sexes together is a wholesome factor in institutions. In all communities where one sex is segregated, e.g., schools, colleges, monasteries, convents, etc., it is more likely that various evils will flourish; women tend to become hysterical, men to acquire unnatural vices, and the whole atmosphere is morbid. In colleges and universities, the presence of women raises the general tone both ethically and academically.
Marriages made after co-educational experience are best. If the man and woman have known each other as fellow-students, a surer basis is given for married life than that gained from purely social acquaintance. If they have mov

There are many people, however, who disagree with the above arguments and who feel there are several reasons for keeping secondary age boys and girls a part from each other.

The history of marriage does not encourage expectations of much advantage from co- education. Nor has the growth of co-education in this country caused any increase in the number of successful marriages. Genuine love (as opposed to temporary infatuation) still needs an element of romance, which is destroyed by too much familiarity between the sexes.

In nearly all branches of life, women are becoming more and more the colleagues of men or their rivals on equal terms. They are equally competent as teachers, members of committees, administrators, doctors and research workers. In mixed schools, a greater proportion of headships should be thrown open to them; at present, the most that all but a very few of them have achieved is a kind of assistantship. H it is absurd to think of a woman as head in a school containing boys, it is absurd for a man to be head in one containing girls. Men and women should be placed on the same professional level of conditions and pay.