Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-06-11
MIllersvllle Co.education.

AIllersvllle Ce.education.
We print the sharp comment of III. !"
upon the Millersville management, be-
cause it comes from one o. our most
highly esteemed readers and furthermore
expresses the sentiment that is heard
upon every hand. As we are informed
by one of the professors that their action
has not been hastily taken but is the re-
suit of their well considered judgment,
it is we'll that they should be thoroughly
given to understand how entirely differ
ent is the view taken by the outside pub
lie of the propriety of the restrictions
placed upon the intercourse of the male
and female students. in an institution
which practices the co-education of the
sexes and applauds it on the ground that
the presence of each has q beneficial in
fluence on the other, in the development
of character, which is caused by the re-
lance necessarily placed upon the stu
dents conscience and self-respect.
This is the proclamation of the Mil
lersville catalogue; but how empty are
the words seen to be when the faculty
show that they know no way to keep their
school free from scandal save by decree
ing the separation of the sexes in their
hours Of relaxation as we'll as Of study.
Where is the reliance placed upon the
students nscience and self-respect, his
sense of duty and power of self control,
and where the possibility of a beneficial
influence of the sexes upon each other In
their co-education when they are forbid
den to converse in the lecture room lin the
the recitation rooms or in the halls :;
when they are forbidden to cores
pond, meet, walk or ride" together,
even in the most public places? Under
the regulations as they are construed
and acted upon by DIR. Brooks, sustained
by the faculty and the trustees, the
brave words of the catalogue are but as
sounding brass, and the cO-educatiOn
of the sexes means but an education
under the same roof of young men and
women who are forbidden the communi-
cation with one another necessary to the
exercise of any beneficial influence upon
each other, through fear of a greater
evil influence.
If this is a necessary apprehension in
the co-educatiOn of the sexes, then it is a
lie to proclaim it and a fraud to vaunt it {;
and that certainly is SO plain that he
who runs may see it.
1t is plain to the public who know
instinctively that young men and women,
il their co-educaJiOn is to he beneficial,
must be trusted. There can he no dis
pute..about this. The Millersville authOri-
ties themselves state it, but they most
absolutely do not show i'm their perform
ance their faith in such trust in their
pupils to keep their school good and
clean. They advertise their inability to
live up to their promise 10y binding
down the students with such prohibition
of intercourse rs no young man or
woman can possibly submit to, in our
judgment, and preserve that self-reslect
which the faculty declare they rely upon
and seek to foster.
They do not foster it. They hold out
their male pupils as ravenous beasts,
who are not TO be trusted in the same
enclosure with their lambs. If this is
the character Of the majority of the Mil
lerSville young men then no precaution
can be too great in the way of cutting
them off from communication with the
young women; and the one precaution
absolutely needed is to put them away
altogether. 1t is no doubt the fact that
at this school, as everywhere, there are
some young men who cannot he trusted
to behave as men. And it is in the
effort to control this class that DIR.
Brooks and his assistants have been in
duced to enact the stringent rules which
bear upon the whole body of the stu
dents. Manifestly they seek to cure the
evil in the wrong way. The only effec-
tive and proper thing to do isto promptly
rid the institution of its untrustworthy
students. "Yes! that is very we'll to
say, but how are these to be found out ?"
these teachers have replied to this
criticism. To which we say that
to confess that they cannot de-
tect them is to confess that they
are incompetent to fill the governing
places which they occupy. 1t is true
that the position at the head of school,
and especially one such as this contain
ing several hundred students of both
sexes, is very hard to fill, and demands
qualities Of the rarest kind. We regret
that these qualities are not commanded
by the head of the Millersville school, as
is demonstrated and self confessed in the
enactment of rules to serve as fence to
pupils who are promised the be-
neficent influence of CO. education, If THE
men cannot I've found who are able to ed
lcate together young men and women,
while treating and trusting them as good
and self-respccting men and women
should be treated and trusted, then man.
feStly cO-education must he abolished.
It will never do to bring the sexes to
,ether for education if it be true that it
cannot be safely done without practically
them. Then it would lie
much better to educate in separate
chOOls. But we are not convinced that
o-education is impossible to young men
md women who are treated as decent,
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