The National tribune., 1883-03-29
render on Monday, april 9th, By signing an
application for admission to the Order.
The Co-Education of the Sexes.

Among the many interesting questions
which are just now engaging the public at
tention, tnefe ;;s none, perhaps, which is the
subject of such active discuss;;GGs. as the Co
education of the sexes. The resistance
which the advocates of co-education have
encountered, in their efforts to have our
colleges and universities thrown open to
young women as well as young men, does
not seem to have discouraged them in the
least, and they are determined, apparently,
to continue the agitation until its purpose
has been fully accomplished. 1t is worthy
our young women have shown themselves
quite as adroit and clever as their tradi-
tionary lords and masters. Nothing could
be neater or cleaner cut, for instance, than
Miss Florence Kelley's reply, printed in
recent number of the International Revie,U,
to the elaborate and labored argument pre-
pared by Professor Jackson, of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania against the admission
of the sex to the benefits of that institution.
She shows herself to be decidedly the "best
man" in that contest, instead of the "Iesser
man" as woman is popularity supposed to be-
But the truth is that although this dis
cussion as to the desirability of co-edueation
is still going on, its practicability has been
fully demonstrated, and it is only because
its opponents choose to shut their eyes to the
facts that there is any occasion for contro-
versy. If they insist upon regarding all
that has been accomplished in this direction
SO far as purely experimental, it is only be-
cause they do not wish it to be otherwise.
We have now before us, in the report of
the President of the Boston University for
the last college year, all the evidence that
any person could reasonably desire on this
point. At this institution no distinction
whatever has ever been made between the
sexes, either as to conditions of admission,
courses of study, attendance at Rotations
and lectures, or examination for degrees, and
the results have been in every way satisfac-
tory. Indeed, no occasion has ever arisen
for the drawing of distinctions. No breach
of decorum appears to have resulted from
the commingling of the sexes in the class
room nor any shock to the moral sensibilities
Beyond the exercise of little judicious
supervision by the class monitors, no disci-
pline seems to have been necessary, and it
apparently never occurred to the faculty
that there was any reason for providing sep
arate seats for the young men and young lady
students. Indeed, the university appears to
have been conducted on the principle that
there was no more improperly in the asso-
citation of the sexes IN the classroom than in
the theatre, church, cencert-roem, or parlor-
as why should there be? At the last COM
meneement, out of twenty-nine graduates
upon whom the degree of Bachelor of Arts was
bestowed, fourteen were women, all of whom
had given the same evidence of fitness as the
male graduates Itmay besaid that thesame
degree could have been obtained at Vassar,
or Smith, or Wellesley, but it is lament
able fact that in the present rather murky
state Of public opinion the same value does
not attach to degree conferred by our col
Ieges for women exclusively as to one
awarded by colleges for men-a good reason
in itself for removing all obstacles to the
co-educatien of the sexes.
The report in question also sheds little
| light on the effect of co-education on the
| subsequent careers of the graduates Ae-
cording to the Presidents statements it has
been entirely salutary. Whether as physi-
clans, ministers, teachers or journalists, they
are reported as prospecting. And if this is
the experience of single university, why
should it not be of all? Is it not lust lit
tie absurd to call that an experiment which
has been the unvarying plan of the Boston
University for nine successive years?
Celebrate the anniversary Of Lees surreRder