Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-08-04
SCHOOL LIFE.

lam convinced from my own rcoolloctions, and
from all / have learned from experienced teachers
in large schools, that one of the most fatal mis-
takes in the training of children has been the too
carly separation of the sexes. | say has been, be-
cause find that everywhere this most dangerous
prejudice has given way before the light Of truth
and a more general acquaintance with that primal
law OF nature, which ought to teach us that the
moro we can assimilato on a large scale, tho pub
lie to the domestic training, the better for all.
There exists still, the impression-in tho higher
classes cspocially-that in early education, the
mixture of the two sexes would tend to make the
girls masculine and tho boys efeminatc, but OK
periencc shows us that il is all the other way.
Bo6s learn a manly and protecting tenderness,
and the girls become at once moro feminine and
more truthful.
Where this association has begun early enough,
that is, before five years old, and has been continu
cd till about ten or twelve, it has uniformly worked
well on this point the evidence is unanimous and
decisive. So long ago as 1872, Francis lIorner, in
describing a school he visited at Enmore, near
Bridgewatcr, speaks with appreciation of the boys
and girls standing up together in the ssRo class /;
it is tho first mention, | find, of this innovation on
the old collegiate or charity school plan-itsclf q
continuation of the monkiSh discipline. lie says,
81 like much the placing of the boys and girls to-
gethcr at sn early ago; it gave the boys a new spur
of emulation" When | have seen a class of girls
standing up together, there has been q kind of
eHlpty Tutoring, II vacancy III the faces, an inert
ness, which made it, as | thought, very uphill
work for the teacher; so when it was a class OF
boys, thore has been often n sluggishnoss-a ten.
doncy to rufian tricks-requiring q perpetual effort
on the part of the master.
In teaching a class of boys and girls, accustomed
to stand up together, thcre is little or nothing OF
this. They are brighter, reader and better be-
haved there is a kind of mutual influence work
ing for good and if there be emulation, it is not
mingled with envy or Jealousy. Mischief, such as
might be apprehonded, is in this case far less likely
to arise than where boys and girls, habitually sep.
arated from infancy, are first thrown together, Just
at the age when the feelings are first awakened
and the association has all the excitementof nov
city. a very intelligent schoolmaster assured pe
that he has had more trouble with u class OF fifty
boys than with a school of three hundred bows and
girls together, lin the midst of which | found him)
and that there were no inconvenience resulting
which a wise and careful and efficient suporinton-
dcncc could not control. "There is" said he,
mot only more emulation, more quickncss of brain,
but altogether a superior hoalthiness of tone, body
and mind, whore the boys and girls are train
cd together till about ten years old, and it extends
into their aftcr-life. should say because it is in
accordance with the laws of God in forming us
with mutual dependence for help from the very
beginning of life"
What is curious enough, l find many people
fathers, mothers, teachers-who are agreed that in
the schools for the lower classes, the two classe,
may lie safely and advantageously associated, vel
have n sort of horror of the idea of such an limo
walton in schools for the higher classes. OnC
would like to know the reason for such q distinc-
ton, instead of being encountered, rs is usual, by
a snecr or a vile innuendo.-MS Jameson.