St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-06
OPINION is DIVIDED.
Special Courses in a Few Instances
Desirable for Boys and Girls.

Special Courses in a Few Instances
Desirable for Boys and Girls.
The discussion of this report occu-
pied the whole of the morning session.
There was diversity of opinion as to
the Identical education of boys and
girls, the belief being that special
cources were, in a few instances,
desirable for both. The majority
agreed that in general education there
should or ought to be no objection
raised to the co-education of the sexes.
Miss Nicholson. of Indianapolis.
pointed out that women were to be the
head of the domestic life, and the cues
ton to be solved was this: ''What
shall we do to prepare them~ Should
not there be a special course of study
for girls?
Robert AlIeyn, of the normal school,
Carbondale, ILL.,, is an advanced thinker
on education, as is evidenced by his
opinion on the subject. He said: L
would like to see in our education more
of the industrial education OF girls as well
as the industrial education of boys. Ii
man wants button sewn on, or coat
mended. he must go to the woman.
There is a kind of mutual helplessness
of the two sexes along this line. They
ought to educate the people out OF this
so that women may know something OF
mems work, and men know something
of the work of woman, and be able to
supplement each other-help each
other.
Prof. Hinsdale, of Michigan, Ques-
toned a statement in the report that
England was in the lead in the higher
education of girls.
Prof. Rounds, ofPlymouth, N. H., was
in England last year. he found 1900
women studying at Oxford, but when he
asked professor If they were admitted
to the degrees, that individual smiled,
and said: mot yet: but that will come
in good time" The professor was a
strong sympathizer of the co-educatlon
of the sexes, but there was more be-
hind this question than he could fathom.
He tried to send his girls to a girls col
lege and his boys to boys college.
The BOYS had demurred against going
to a college where girls were admitted.
Prof. Rounds had eXpostulated that
they would find the girls equally as
clever as themselves, but the position
of the boys was: "a fellow doesn't
want to be strained up all the time"
There was something in this-some-
thing which he did not know how to get
behind.
Commissioner Harris, of the United
States Education department, declared
that, while in the West it was not so
marked, co-educatiOn in the. Eastern
states was on the advance: 1t was a
slow process, but eventually the last
remnants of Sc arate education would
be obliterated If we wanted to bring a
population forward we must educate
the girls alongside the boys.
RoIh hyryin hQhQIf 'IQY1S
where, he said, with the exception of
one city, the high schools educated both
sexes side by side. The tendency in
Southern states was to cO-educatlon.
DIR. Brown, of Bloomington, declared
that it was absolutely necessary to have
cO-educators as well as co-education.
Men as well as women must teach the
bows of this country if we were to real
ize the ideal of co-education OF any
other sort of education.
DR.. White, of Ohio, touched a very
tender point which must arise in the
minds of all parents when discussing
| this question-the propriety OF sending
| girls from home, between fourteen ana
| twenty years of age, to obtain their sec
| ondary education, DIR. White put 1t
this way: "My doubt is so serious that
| did not send my own daughter to a
| mixed ScnOOl Wnen SeHt HeI away
| from home. There is a good deal OF
doubt about the propriety of sending
| girls to mixed school at that period.
Yet when girl passes to the point, or a
point that she has the purpose of higher
education-has reached point where
she has wisdom and self-possession. and
can be trusted-I see none of the dan
gers that have been predicted.
Prof. Phelps, of ST. Paul. took ad-
vantage of his position as an honorary
member of the council to get in the fol
lowing: The time has come. or at least
1t is approaching. when Whatever
woman wants, whatever she desires,
whatever she demands in the way OF
education, that she will receive. Woman
| knows her needs quite as well, / think,