The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-26

! pies OF government.
| Not claiming that this teaching is sub
| stituted for any other purpose than that
named let us as teachers, with an abid
! ing faith in Americanism. strive to hand
down a worthy citizenship worthy of
America.
CO-EDUCATION.
! Prof. !. O. Atkinson. of Elon College
spoke with interest from experience on
| the education of the two sexes in the
same school and college. In part he said:
"CO-education is no longer a theory-it
! is fact. 1t is no longer speculation
/ it is a reality. 1t is no longer conjec
ture-it is an experience.
| Co-educatiOn has come upon us like a
mighty avalanche sweeping customs and
traditions in its onward movement and
burying tradition, prejudice and super
IStition in its march. The argument AMI
apology and defence are shifting from
i the side of co-educatiOn to that Vi educa-
ton TO rthe sexes in separate schools. a
goodIy majority of all our colleges and
universities are now cO-educatiOnal, and
thirty years experience has completely
reversed the order of things and built
splendid majority out of q meagre
minority.
| believe in co-education, first, Be
CAUSE IT is RIGHT.
The reason why cO-educati0n is not
universal in the schools is not because of
the unfitness or injustice of the thing,
but because of the ancient notion of
mans superiority to woman-that man
is by nature and by grace superior to
woman in physical, mental, moral and
spiritual makeup.
THIS NOTION DISAPPEARS AS
RAPIDLY AS CIVILIZATION AID
lVANCES. Co-education lis a child and
product of civilization-and of that civil
cation which is seeking to find and per-
petuate the right, the just, the truth and
the eternal fitness of things. 1t is not
mere bubble on the surface, the crea-
ton of fancy or the fiction of day. 1t
is civilization, enlightenment, inteli-
gence and christianity asserting them
selves-asserting themselves. too, in un-
denia BILE. unmistakable terms.
Let us note some of these assertions,
even within the memory of men now
living:
Fifty years ago woman in the United
States was without a recognized individ-
Iuality in any department of life. No pro-
vision was made in public or private
schools for her education in anything be-
Iyond the rudimentary branches.
No occupations were open to women,
except cooking, sewing, teaching and
factory work. Very few women were
sufficiently educated to teach, but those
who could do so received from "a to SIS
per months and boarded round" while
men for exactly the same service received
$50 a month and board.
No woman in that day was so bold as
Ieven to dream of one of the professions.
Now, while these things have been
pushed into the back ground and buried
n the past, the effects of the fundamental
ideas then held are not altogether gone.
Civilization asserts and actual statistics
and experience substantiate the fact that
man is not woman's intellectual superior.
All that woman needed to demonstrate
this fact was a chance. Christianity
and civilization gave her the chance and
she has proven and is proving the real
facts in the case.
Co-education was the outcome Of the
tendency to demand for woman the same
kind of education as that offered to man.
Most emphaticaly do / deny that she is
unable to cope with man in the higher or
lower branches of learning. Statistics
are abundant and absolute which sub
stantiate this denial. Early objections
to co-education were primarily woman's
physical inability and danger to womanly
character.
1t is the undeniable record that girls
show no physical or mental inability to
endure the strain of college life and they
have lost none of the precious bloom Of
true womanliness.
1t is right that woman receive every
educational advantage offered to man
because of the responsibility and dignity
of her position and authority in home.
church and State. In all ages men have
united in alteration of the dignity of
Idomesticity and the sacredness of mother
hood, yet any loving, sentimental, I'M
trained, inefficient creature has been held
good enough to be a wife and mother. We
do not expect man to become a dis
| tinguished engineer or professor of Latin
by studying a little literature, history,
music and language, yet we expect wo-
4 H.