If, then, the identical co-education of the sexes is condemned both byphysiology and experience, may it not be that their _special andappropriate co-education_ would yield a better result than theirspecial and appropriate _separate_ education? This is a most importantquestion, and one difficult to resolve. The discussion of it must bereferred to those who are engaged in the practical work ofinstruction, and the decision will rest with experience. Physiologyadvocates, as we have seen, the special and appropriate education ofthe sexes, and has only a single word to utter with regard to simpleco-education, or juxtaposition in education.
That word is with regard to the common belief in the danger ofimproprieties and scandal as a part of co-education. There is somedanger in this respect; but not a serious or unavoidable one.Doubtless there would be occasional lapses in a double-sexed college;and so there are outside of schoolhouses and seminaries of learning.Even the church and the clergy are not exempt from reproach in suchthings. There are sects, professing to commingle religion and love,who illustrate the dangers of juxtaposition even in things holy. "Nophysiologist can well doubt that the holy kiss of love in such casesowes all its warmth to the sexual feeling which consciously orunconsciously inspires it, or that the mystical union of the sexeslies very close to a union that is nowise mystical, when it does notlead to madness."[31] There is less, or certainly no more danger inhaving the sexes unite at the repasts of knowledge, than, as Plautusbluntly puts it, having he wits and she wits recline at the repasts offashion. Isolation is more likely to breed pruriency than comminglingto provoke indulgence. The virtue of the cloister and the cellscarcely deserves the name. A girl has her honor in her own keeping.If she can be trusted with boys and men at the lecture-room and inchurch, she can be trusted with them at school and in college. JeanPaul says, "To insure modesty, I would advise the education of thesexes together; for two boys will preserve twelve girls, or two girlstwelve boys, innocent amidst winks, jokes, and improprieties, merelyby that instinctive sense which is the forerunner of matured modesty.But I will guarantee nothing in a school where girls are alonetogether, and still less when boys are." A certain amount ofjuxta-position is an advantage to each sex. More than a certain amountis an evil to both. Instinct and common sense can be safely left todraw the line of demarcation. At the same time it is well to rememberthat juxtaposition may be carried too far. Temptations enough besetthe young, without adding to them. Let learning and purity go hand inhand.
There are two considerations appertaining to this subject, which,although they do not belong to the physiology of the matter, deserveto be mentioned in this connection. One amounts to a practicalprohibition, for the present at least, of the experiment of thespecial and appropriate co-education of the sexes; and the other is aninherent difficulty in the experiment itself. The former can beremoved whenever those who heartily believe in the success of theexperiment choose to get rid of it; and the latter by patient andintelligent effort.
The present practical prohibition of the experiment is the poverty ofour colleges. Identical co-education can be easily tried with theexisting organization of collegiate instruction. This has been tried,and is still going on in separate and double-sexed schools of allsorts, and has failed. Special and appropriate co-education requiresin many ways, not in all, re-arrangement of the organization ofinstruction; and this will cost money and a good deal of it. HarvardCollege, for example, rich as it is supposed to be, whose banner, touse Mr. Higginson's illustration, is the red flag that the bulls offemale reform are just now pitching into,--Harvard College could notundertake the task of special and appropriate co-education, in such away as to give the two sexes a fair chance, which means the _best_chance, and the only chance it ought to give or will ever give,without an endowment, additional to its present resources, of from oneto two millions of dollars; and it probably would require the largerrather than the smaller sum. And this I say advisedly. By which Imean, not with the advice and consent of the president and fellows ofthe college, but as an opinion founded on nearly twenty years'personal acquaintance, as an instructor in one of the departments ofthe university, with the organization of instruction in it, and uponthe demands which physiology teaches the special and appropriateeducation of girls would make upon it. To make boys half-girls, andgirls half-boys, can never be the legitimate function of any college.But such a result, the natural child of identical co-education, issure to follow the training of a college that has not the pecuniarymeans to prevent it. This obstacle is of course a removable one. Itis only necessary for those who wish to get it out of the way to puttheir hands in their pockets, and produce a couple of millions. Theoffer of such a sum, conditioned upon the liberal education of women,might influence even a body as soulless as the corporation of HarvardCollege is sometimes represented to be.
The inherent difficulty in the experiment of special and appropriateco-education is the difficulty of adjusting, in the same institution,the methods of instruction to the physiological needs of each sex; tothe persistent type of one, and the periodical type of the other; tothe demand for a margin in metamorphosis of tissue, beyond what studycauses, for general growth in one sex, and to a larger margin in theother sex, that shall permit not only general growth, but also theconstruction of the reproductive apparatus. This difficulty can onlybe removed by patient and intelligent effort. The first step in thedirection of removing it is to see plainly what errors or dangers liein the way. These, or some of them, we have endeavored to point out."Nothing is so conducive to a right appreciation of the truth as aright appreciation of the error by which it is surrounded."[32] Whenwe have acquired a belief of the facts concerning the identicaleducation, the identical co-education, the appropriate education, andthe appropriate co-education of the sexes, we shall be in a conditionto draw just conclusions from them.
The intimate connection of mind and brain, the correlation of mentalpower and cerebral metamorphosis, explains and justifies thephysiologist's demand, that in the education of girls, as well as ofboys, the machinery and methods of instruction shall be carefullyadjusted to their organization. If it were possible, they should beadjusted to the organization of each individual. None doubt theimportance of age, acquirement, idiosyncrasy, and probable career inlife, as factors in classification. Sex goes deeper than any or all ofthese. To neglect this is to neglect the chief factor of the problem.Rightly interpreted and followed, it will yield the grandest results.Disregarded, it will balk the best methods of teaching and the geniusof the best teachers. Sex is not concerned with studies as such.These, for any thing that appears to the contrary physiologically, maybe the same for the intellectual development of females as of males;but, as we have seen, it is largely concerned about an appropriate wayof pursuing them. Girls will have a fair chance, and women the largestfreedom and greatest power, now that legal hinderances are removed,and all bars let down, when they are taught to develop and are willingto respect their own organization. How to bring about this developmentand insure this respect, in a double-sexed college, is one of theproblems of co-education.
It does not come within the scope of this essay to speculate upon theways--the regimen, methods of instruction, and other details ofcollege life,--by which the inherent difficulties of co-education maybe obviated. Here tentative and judicious experiment is better thanspeculation. It would seem to be the part of wisdom, however, to makethe simplest and least costly experiment first; that is, to discardthe identical separate education of girls as boys, and to ascertainwhat their appropriate separate education is, and what it willaccomplish. Aided by the light of such an experiment, it would becomparatively easy to solve the more difficult problem of the appropriate co-education of the sexes.
That word is with regard to the common belief in the danger ofimproprieties and scandal as a part of co-education. There is somedanger in this respect; but not a serious or unavoidable one.Doubtless there would be occasional lapses in a double-sexed college;and so there are outside of schoolhouses and seminaries of learning.Even the church and the clergy are not exempt from reproach in suchthings. There are sects, professing to commingle religion and love,who illustrate the dangers of juxtaposition even in things holy. "Nophysiologist can well doubt that the holy kiss of love in such casesowes all its warmth to the sexual feeling which consciously orunconsciously inspires it, or that the mystical union of the sexeslies very close to a union that is nowise mystical, when it does notlead to madness."[31] There is less, or certainly no more danger inhaving the sexes unite at the repasts of knowledge, than, as Plautusbluntly puts it, having he wits and she wits recline at the repasts offashion. Isolation is more likely to breed pruriency than comminglingto provoke indulgence. The virtue of the cloister and the cellscarcely deserves the name. A girl has her honor in her own keeping.If she can be trusted with boys and men at the lecture-room and inchurch, she can be trusted with them at school and in college. JeanPaul says, "To insure modesty, I would advise the education of thesexes together; for two boys will preserve twelve girls, or two girlstwelve boys, innocent amidst winks, jokes, and improprieties, merelyby that instinctive sense which is the forerunner of matured modesty.But I will guarantee nothing in a school where girls are alonetogether, and still less when boys are." A certain amount ofjuxta-position is an advantage to each sex. More than a certain amountis an evil to both. Instinct and common sense can be safely left todraw the line of demarcation. At the same time it is well to rememberthat juxtaposition may be carried too far. Temptations enough besetthe young, without adding to them. Let learning and purity go hand inhand.
There are two considerations appertaining to this subject, which,although they do not belong to the physiology of the matter, deserveto be mentioned in this connection. One amounts to a practicalprohibition, for the present at least, of the experiment of thespecial and appropriate co-education of the sexes; and the other is aninherent difficulty in the experiment itself. The former can beremoved whenever those who heartily believe in the success of theexperiment choose to get rid of it; and the latter by patient andintelligent effort.
The present practical prohibition of the experiment is the poverty ofour colleges. Identical co-education can be easily tried with theexisting organization of collegiate instruction. This has been tried,and is still going on in separate and double-sexed schools of allsorts, and has failed. Special and appropriate co-education requiresin many ways, not in all, re-arrangement of the organization ofinstruction; and this will cost money and a good deal of it. HarvardCollege, for example, rich as it is supposed to be, whose banner, touse Mr. Higginson's illustration, is the red flag that the bulls offemale reform are just now pitching into,--Harvard College could notundertake the task of special and appropriate co-education, in such away as to give the two sexes a fair chance, which means the _best_chance, and the only chance it ought to give or will ever give,without an endowment, additional to its present resources, of from oneto two millions of dollars; and it probably would require the largerrather than the smaller sum. And this I say advisedly. By which Imean, not with the advice and consent of the president and fellows ofthe college, but as an opinion founded on nearly twenty years'personal acquaintance, as an instructor in one of the departments ofthe university, with the organization of instruction in it, and uponthe demands which physiology teaches the special and appropriateeducation of girls would make upon it. To make boys half-girls, andgirls half-boys, can never be the legitimate function of any college.But such a result, the natural child of identical co-education, issure to follow the training of a college that has not the pecuniarymeans to prevent it. This obstacle is of course a removable one. Itis only necessary for those who wish to get it out of the way to puttheir hands in their pockets, and produce a couple of millions. Theoffer of such a sum, conditioned upon the liberal education of women,might influence even a body as soulless as the corporation of HarvardCollege is sometimes represented to be.
The inherent difficulty in the experiment of special and appropriateco-education is the difficulty of adjusting, in the same institution,the methods of instruction to the physiological needs of each sex; tothe persistent type of one, and the periodical type of the other; tothe demand for a margin in metamorphosis of tissue, beyond what studycauses, for general growth in one sex, and to a larger margin in theother sex, that shall permit not only general growth, but also theconstruction of the reproductive apparatus. This difficulty can onlybe removed by patient and intelligent effort. The first step in thedirection of removing it is to see plainly what errors or dangers liein the way. These, or some of them, we have endeavored to point out."Nothing is so conducive to a right appreciation of the truth as aright appreciation of the error by which it is surrounded."[32] Whenwe have acquired a belief of the facts concerning the identicaleducation, the identical co-education, the appropriate education, andthe appropriate co-education of the sexes, we shall be in a conditionto draw just conclusions from them.
The intimate connection of mind and brain, the correlation of mentalpower and cerebral metamorphosis, explains and justifies thephysiologist's demand, that in the education of girls, as well as ofboys, the machinery and methods of instruction shall be carefullyadjusted to their organization. If it were possible, they should beadjusted to the organization of each individual. None doubt theimportance of age, acquirement, idiosyncrasy, and probable career inlife, as factors in classification. Sex goes deeper than any or all ofthese. To neglect this is to neglect the chief factor of the problem.Rightly interpreted and followed, it will yield the grandest results.Disregarded, it will balk the best methods of teaching and the geniusof the best teachers. Sex is not concerned with studies as such.These, for any thing that appears to the contrary physiologically, maybe the same for the intellectual development of females as of males;but, as we have seen, it is largely concerned about an appropriate wayof pursuing them. Girls will have a fair chance, and women the largestfreedom and greatest power, now that legal hinderances are removed,and all bars let down, when they are taught to develop and are willingto respect their own organization. How to bring about this developmentand insure this respect, in a double-sexed college, is one of theproblems of co-education.
It does not come within the scope of this essay to speculate upon theways--the regimen, methods of instruction, and other details ofcollege life,--by which the inherent difficulties of co-education maybe obviated. Here tentative and judicious experiment is better thanspeculation. It would seem to be the part of wisdom, however, to makethe simplest and least costly experiment first; that is, to discardthe identical separate education of girls as boys, and to ascertainwhat their appropriate separate education is, and what it willaccomplish. Aided by the light of such an experiment, it would becomparatively easy to solve the more difficult problem of the appropriate co-education of the sexes.
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