New-York tribune., 1902-06-22
on CO-EDUC4TION.
VIEWS OF THE PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY.

The solemn arguments which have resisted the
movement to open wide TO women opportunities Tor
higher education could be properly portrayed only
by the pen of Swift says Nicholas Murray Butler
president of Columbia University. in collier 5
Weekly They are quite beyond Dooleys reach
One who is blessed with a sense of humor, even IN
modest proportions is unable to treat those arSu-
ments seriously, particularly as the movement has
gone along quite as if there rocks strewn
in its path The reason is simple enough. The
solemn arguments founded assumptions
which experience persisted in contradcting-
Women would not be interested in the subjects
which men care to study. and. if they would. they
.oud not master them. 1t is now conveniently
forgotten that this argument was ever used; facts
have demolished il utterly.
Women would ruin their health if they spent
years in study. The statistics prove that women
students and women graduates enjoy better health
than their sisters.
Women who had college education would be
come dissati-sed with the ordinary conditions OF
family life and would not marry. The statistics
show not only that the married college graduates
healthier than their married sisters. that there
are fewer chfldIess marriages them. and that
they have larger proportion of children but that
their children are healthier
There was left the retort that there distinct
" feminine type Of mind. This must be granted,
especially as it is known to exist among men II
can however. be educated
The next intrenchment was the apparently frank
and open minded concession that women ought. Of
tunities but apart from men Here again experience
is disappointing Not only does co-educaton exist
In every part of United States. but exists by
common consent and it works admira bly,
The separate colleges for women which thrive
are TO be found almost without exception in the
narrow strip of States lying along the Atlantic
bOard-a locality which. as an eminent and StrenU-
as Honduras The college professor who fears that
his mind Will be weakened and his vitality sapped
through teaching women takes rank with the ad-
vOcates OF the Baconian authorship or Snakes
"A wise college president wrote a few years ago
that this Entertaining and equal training takes
ness out of the younE man lie was right The
woman who grows u? suTr2unded by women ana
surrounded by men and taught only by men are
long time maturing. Both abnormal. The
family is the natural type, not the monastery or the
The artifciaIity absurdity of the ordinary
relations between men and women are chiefly due
social traditions which gave rise 70 The system
of separate education. From the of eight or
ten both BOYS and girls taught 10 look upon
amid coRventionai surroundings Comradeship and
friendship eliminated and the only conceivable
and marriage Anything else is bad form or DIS dis
absurd. and that II is fraught with danger every
Does not woman require different training from
one must answer with the guess. Which man? No
ali men The same observation is true OF women.
tenn of education must be elastic enough S 10 lah an
care Of infinitely varied fndividualites. We are just
learning this ana aCtnS CiIiylL
be cared for in the system individuals, and
will be Jumped together as sex: The deco
ratfve theory Of wOmans educat tton. by which
II was to consist of a few accomplishments irlper-
fectly mastered has not thriven we'll II called Tor
a 'PIppenfee' education. Some women Will fare best
by combining their studies differently from most
men Modern education affords that opportunity
Women themselves President Thomas of Bryn
Nawr pointpd out must be permitted be the
Judges of what kind intellectual discipline they
find most truly serviCeabe. They viii not be likely
10 prefer 4 diluted programme of studies
But really these all dead issues The Amer
fcar people have settled the matter The fifteen
millions of children in the elementary schools are
All tshstantfallyl being Coeducated- OF the public
cniarv schnGls In IS57-9S "a for boys only
% for girls only and 252 were coeducational; or
fhe private secondary schools LIS were coeduca-
tional 327 were for boys only and 53S were 1or
girls cnlv The latter figures mean that In the
East and South many of the well-to-do prefer
separate education during the secondary school
period chiefly for social reasons. or the co!iegeS
IN 1SqS 70 per cent-or omitting the Roman Cathoic