Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1889-12-12
A sCHOOL.RooM SPook.

A Bug-a-boo of the CO-education of the
Sexes-ScnseIcss Objections Based Upon
the Impropricties of Literature.
Now that the higher education of
women is pretty well assured, there is
disposition, especially among occasional
foreign observers, to find new bugbear
in the way. This lies, says writer in
Harper's Bazaar, in the imagined diff
Guilty of teaching the sciences and the
classics to women-and especially to
mixed classes of men and women-on
account of supposed improprieties to be
found in such studies. So far has this
been carried, that an eminent teacher
argued seriously against the establish
ment of the Girls Highschool in Boston,
some years since, on the ground that
Greek literature was unfit for the perus-
al of girls. When it was pointed out in
turn that the Greek literature was in
general more dignifed and free from inn
proprieties than any great modern liter
ature, except, perhaps, the Spanish, and
that there was something absurd in ex-
Guiding girls from the knowledge of
Plato and Homer, and then turning
them loose among modern French nov
els. the objection subsidized. But as it
has lately been brought up again, espe-
cially in foreign criticisms on the great
co-educational universities of our West
, ern States, it may be well to consider it
little farther
The literature of the world is unfor-
tunately disfgured here and there by a
great deal of improperly, the bequest
of coarse and sensual periods. This has
| gradually yielded to various influences,
one chief cause being the greater partic-
ipation of women in literature; just as
conversation has been visibly refined by
the greater share taken by women in
social intercourse. There has been no
steady advance, for, as has been said,
the sense of dignity and fitness among
the Greeks placed them beyond most of
the moderns Among the classic Greek
authors there is but single one, COM
edian, whose works are in large part UNI
translatable even these having nothing
in them that is seductive or insidious,
only what would at once disgust and re-
| pei. Nevertheless all literatures have
some of this faint. How, then, shall
they be studied? They must be studied,
like all things else, by selection. Where
so little time can be given to any partic-
ular author, there is no reason why he
shoOld not be viewed on his best side
instead of his worst; no reason why we
should bring into prominence the lines
which dying he might wish to blot"
We must also assume that young people
of decent training will gladly omit or
ignore, with little assistance, all that
is polluting; and that such persons will
indeed be spared many reprehensible al
lusions simply by ignorance of their
meaning. Without the aid of all these
resources It is plain that Shakespeare
clubs would be impossible; and if youths
and maidens read and act Shakespeare
together all over the country, it is sim
ply absurd to say they can not study
Plato and Virgil together, or even Ana
creon and Horace. The selection is more
easily made in these cases than in Chau-
Ger or Spencer or Shakespeare, and the
undesirable passages are more effectu-
ally yelled by the obscurity of foreign
tongue.
We must always bear in mind that 1t
is youth in itself, and not the youth OF
either sex only, which we are seeking
to protect. 1t was not the theory, even
of ancient education, that vice should
be revealed to boys while hidden from
girls. 1t was Juvensl, the most merci
less of satirists, who wrote that rever-
ence is due to youth (Maxima debetur
pueris reverentia), and the phrase has
become proverb. Horace, an equally
trenchant social critic, yet inscribes one
of his finest odes to his young readers O.
both sexes (Virginibus puerisque canto)
What poet writes for maids and boy,
may not maids and boys read, and ever
read together? 1t is not a question
of vast and exhaustive knowledge
searching every thing, emitting
nothing; our modern life gives no tim,
for that, except to professional special
lists. But there is no reason why tn,
very limited amount for which ordinar,
students have time, in their study o
any literature or history. should not b
kept within ground that is safe, ever
for their innocence.
The question of co-education ma
: sometimes present practical difficulties
but they will rarely lie in the directio
, of perplexities in the recitation-room
{ Those who have taught mixed classes
, even in medical schools, almost AWAY
| testify that they have found the emba,
rassment in this direction far less tina
? they expected; and it is absurd to sa
: that if surmounted in medicine, thes
l obstacles will afford any perceptible il
5 convenience in Greek or botany.
r they do, it viii be because of the war
: of tact or of propriety in the instructor
! and lere we come to what is. am col
! fdenh positive advantage in lecturin
; % ioint classes or in teaching them.