The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-09-21
Co.Educntion of the sexes.

Our friend, the Hon. John SWEET, Of San Fran
cisco, State Superintendent of Public instruction
Of OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, congenial fellow,
without those sordid prejudices so apt to warp .
mans Judgment from truth to error,-thus dis
| courses on the co-education of the sexes. We
commend his article to those who entertain OPP
posite views, and who see nothing but harm
growing out of the system which is being uni
versally adopted by the best schools in the land
"The co-education of the sexes is a characters.
tic feature of our American common-school sys-
tenn, in contradistinction to the European system
OF national schools. Everywhere in the United
States, except in few of the largest cities, the
boys and girls are educated together in the pub
| lie schools What is the result? Are we ready
to admit that in France, where boys and girls
| are educated apart, the standard of morality is
higher THAI. Il: US? Are wives and daughters
purer and trv,r Is woman more respected
there than ;usf We are no believers either
in the celibacy OF the clergy the separate edu.
cation Of the sexes. We were born and bred in
that benighted corner of the Union where COM
mon schools were first established, where they
have since been nurtured and sustained, and
where men and women have been taught to
think for themselves Our pleasantest memo
rles of schoodays are associated with the bright
eyed little girls who came to school on summer
| mornings, bringing MayfoweIs and lilacs and
peonies in their hands. We loved some of those
pretty girls with all the fullness of our boyish
feeling. We have never forgotten them, and
never expect to forget them. Nobody ever in
formed us it was dangerous to play with them,
to ramble with them round the pastures after
flowers and Strawberries. No impure thought
ever sullied our affection for them, for no moral
retormers had poisoned our minds with the
notion that boys and girls are innately vicious.
Barefoot farmer boys were all OF u.s. with tanned
faces and hands used to toll; and farmers girls
red-cheeked, barefoot too, and dressed in home
spun-taught us our first lessons of faith in the
| purity and nobleness of womanhood. They were
our best teachers. They made the old school.
house pleasant with the sunlight of their faces,
and merry with their ringing laughter. They
softened our rongh natures. We chose the girls
we liked the best at the spelling-matches, and
never were the worse for it. We hauled the
girls on sleds in winter time, and slid on the ice
together and none OF us ever thought Of evil.
Some of even fell in love, and had dim notions,
in sentimental moments, that away in the future
we should marry some of these favorite girls
| but the fancies were never realized, and they
never did US any harm. School-master and
! school-mistress are forgotten; the old school
houseis in ruins Two Of the boys who sat with
us in school, after "lifes .ftful fever" rest in
peace in this land where they found graves in
stead of gold We turn with vain longings to
the home scenes which we never expect to re-
visit. The girls are all married; our hair is
turning gray; but we look back upon the past,
and feel deyoutly thankful that our fathers and
mothers and teachers had common sense enough
to believe in letting boys and girls go to school
together"