The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1891-08-30
The Higher Education of Women.

Two ladies Of acknowledged competence
Mrs. ALICE FREEMAN PALMER and Mrs.
CHARLOTTE w. PoRTER-discuss various
questions relating to the higher education
Of women In the latest number OF the Forum.
Mrs. PALMER, it will be remembered, was
formerly President OF Wellesley College, and
she speaks. therefore, with the authority
which comes from long experience. The
subject to which Mrs. PORTER particularly
addresses herself is the alleged existence
OF physical hindrances to teaching girls.
As might have been expected she assails the
principle laid down by DR.. E. H. CLARKE in
his well-known essay on Sex In Education"
Mrs. PALMER enters on an interesting COM
parlson OF ths three methods by which tho
higher education is at present assured to
women. In coeducation woman's study
is carried on inside a mans college. In the
women's college outside 1t, In the annex be-
side It, The specific advantages Of each
plan are indicated. The advocates OF CO.
education as 1t Is exemplifled at Cornell.
Oberlin, and elsewhere consider it whole
some for girl, in her later teens and early
twenties, to be subjected to IN impartial
Judgment. ready to estimate her without
swerving. and to tell her as freely when she
Is silly, ignorant, fussy, or indolent, as her
brother himself is told. By the artiilciali-
ties OF society and the enfeebling indul-
senoe extended to pretty ineptitude. any
comfortably placed aud pleasing girl is
pretty sure to be surrounded. OF
such influences coeducatlon is deemed cor
pendenoe OF mind, individuality OF taste,
common sonse, self-guldancc. disinclina-
ton to claim favor. an interest in learning
for Its own sake, and friendly, natural. I'M
romantic. non-sentimental relations with
men. Mrs. PALMER notes that the early
fear that coeducatlon would result In class
room romances has proved to have been ex-
aN9ersted. OF course the young women at
Cornell and Obcrlin do marry. but 1t is sub
mitted that long and quiet cooperation in
intellectual work. and intimate cointerests
Of tho Deeper sort, form as solid a basis for
. successful marriage as ballroom inter-
course or a summer ct Bar Harbor.
A woman's college embodics different
and moro complex conception; 1t aims not
only to give instruction OF the best obtain
able quality In as many subjects rs possible,
but also to make for its students homo,
and to develop In them other powers than
tho merely intellectual. All the arrange
ments Of womans college have for their
direct and conscious aim to build up charac-
Tor, cultivate manners. develop TASTE and
strengthen health. as well a. to provide the
means Of sound learning. 1t Is doubtless
true that similar development OF characte.
results from the training Of every college
worthy Of tho name. but as Mrs. PALMKr
points out, the question 10 one OF dlrectneSf
or indlrsctness OF purpose. The woman'i
college puts this aim In the foreground. side
by side with tho acquisition OF knowledge
Not only In tho selection Of the teachers
but In all Its appliances. the separate college
contemplates rounded refinement, the cul
tlvat!on OF sense OF beauty. tho impartinG
Of correct tastes and general sympathies
Mrs. PALMER has watched for many years
tho effect OF such influences among Wellos
Icy students, and she Is confident that ne
moro healthy, democratic. generous-mlnded
beauty-lovlng, serviceable society OF people
exists than q girls college community
In word, according to Mrs. PALMER. thu
choicest product OF modern civilization Il
evolved under such conditions.
With regard to the so-called anucN'S "
which there are examples ut Harvard @r'
Columbia, Mrs. PALMEE does not seem i
clined to mako any definite prediction T''''
arc neither ono thing nor tho other Tie.
stop short of coeducation and they do nu
carry out tho specific purpose OF wohan'
college. They represent an e1perlmen
whose results, In this country nc all events
arc as yet undetermined. Should the con
nection between an annex and tho nnivcr
salty ever become SO close that lite student