CO-EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 21968, 2 March 1935, Page 20

CO-EDUCATION

WHAT IT MEANS HEAD MASTER'S VIEW Mr J, H. Badley, who is about to retire from the head mastership of Bedales, the school which he built up from its beginnings, writes in 4 Tha Times Education Supplement ’ on his experience of boarding school co-educa-tion of which he is a pioneer. _ 44 What of the results found in practice?” asks Mr Bradley. 44 To anyona first_ confronted with the idea it seems inevitable that each sex must lose some of its own qualities and take oa those of the other—that boys must become milksops and girls hoydens. 44 If co-education meant putting a few boys into a school organised for girls, or vice versa, this might very well be the result. But where there is equality in numbers and in ages, and also in the distribution of the two sexes on the staff, the fear proves to be groundless. 44 For the boy it is undoubtedly ahumanising influence. In language, be-!, haviour, and the tendency to appeal* to force, such an influence is all to the; good. That is does not mean any loss’ of manliness or slackening of strenuous; effort is sufficiently shown by the athletic and scholarship records of th* leading co-educational schools. 44 For the girl the gain in a broaden* ing of outlook and a more bracing atmosphere is even more evident. Every; healthy girl is at one stage of hep: development something of a tomboy* If she finds the same outlet as a boyi for impulses that are just as normal asi his, they do not persist or prevent her from developing; in due course her! more womanly qualities, 44 And to both there 'is a common, gain, all the greater for being largely’ unconscious, in the fact that the beginnings of the sex-instinct find a natural outlet and satisfaction in the intercourse of daily life and in the comradeship that it encourages, 44 Few visitors to a co-educational school fail to be struck with the atmosphere of contentment and the general feeling of happiness that prevails. This is, no doubt, due in part to the fact that such schools are usually of the type in which there is considerable variety of occupation and interest, and in which individual abilities and needs are taken into account. But the satisfaction that comes from the use of a wide range of powers is greater still if it extends to emotional stirrings which, if they do not find a normal means of expression, become a source ot unrest and psychological disturbance. . “ There are some for whom co-educa-tion would be unwise. But for most, if the conditions in which it is practised are sound, it lessens rather than adds to the difficulties of adolescence. It needs both sympathy and common sense on the part of those in charge. It needs frankness of sex-teaching, to do away with dangers of ignorance and unsatisfied curiosity, and to ensure a wholesome attitude both on the part of the individual and of public opinion. And above all it must be complete, without unnecessary restrictions and differences. 44 This need not mean, however, that both must do exactly the same things. Boys need not be restricted to netball, nor girls forced to play Rugger. In most games, as well as in gymnastics and athletic sports, separation is desirable. So, too, in work; there must be lines of choice open to each—in engineering, for instance, and domestio economy—which need not be followed by both. 44 Much stress is laid by critics of coeducation on differences in rate of development. Girls mature more rapidly than boys, and are in advance up to. fifteen or so; then the boy goes ahead. How can they be expected to work together without keeping back or overstraining the other? “ There would be more force in the objection if co-education necessarily meant identity of work at all stages,.’ and competition between the sexes. And such critics are apt to overlook the equally great differences’ between different members of the same sex. It is an outstanding difficulty in education, only to be met by giving mors consideration to individual capacity* more freedom in the selection of subjects to be offered for examination, and in the later school years more choice of lines of specialised study. If coeducation makes the need of this greater freedom still clearer, it is not the least of the educational gains that it brings. 44 In these days, especially, when the old framework of life is visibly breaking up and the. old sanctions of conduct have lost their hold, it will be for those who are boys and girls to-day to build a new framework and to work out an. ethical code to meet the new conditions of life; and since for the first time in history this will be the joint work of both together, it is the more fitting that they should , come to their task prepared by a training of life and work together in the school. If so, there is ground for regarding co-education as in the line of educational advance; and with the experience of a generation by which to judge its working and outcome, it cannot now he dismissed as impracticable or untried.”