They can easily be amplified, and be made the basis of an ethical instruction
in all the schools. In any case, every nation should aim
at the highest standard of morals.
Co-education in the United States is not so unpopular as in some
other countries, and it is increasing in favor. In all the primary schools,
and in most of the high schools, boys and girls study in the same class-room,
and girls are admitted as students even in some colleges and universities.
This principle of admitting the fair sex to equal educational privileges
is slowly but surely being recognized everywhere. In some universities
the authorities have gone half-way; lectures are given to the girl students
in separate rooms, or separate buildings, or halls, are provided
for the girl students. With regard to the teaching staff,
in the primary schools nearly all the teachers are women,
and in the high schools their number is at least half, if not more.
In some of the universities there are lady professors or tutors.
It goes without saying that girls have the natural talent
for learning everything that boys can learn. The objections raised
by the opponents of co-education seem to rest chiefly upon the danger
of the intellectual or physical overstrain of girls during adolescence,
and upon the unequal rate of development of boys and girls
during the secondary school period. It is further alleged
that in mixed schools the curriculum is so prescribed
that the girls' course of study is more or less adapted to that of the boys,
with the result that it cannot have the artistic and domestic character
which is suitable for the majority of girls; but why should not the curriculum
be arranged in such a way as to suit both sexes? Is it not good for both
to learn the same subjects? That which is good for a boy to learn
is it not equally advisable for a girl to know, and vice versa?
Will not such a policy create mutual sympathy between the sexes?
The opponents of the co-education policy assert that it makes
the girls masculine, and that it has a tendency to make the boys
a little feminine.
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