CO-EDUCATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 May 1927, Page 3

CO-EDUCATION

. THE SYSTEM DEFENDED.

The following paper, by J. H. Howell, Wellington Technical College was read at the Annual Conference of the Technical Schools’ Association. “From time to time attempts have been made in New Zealand, and not without success, to change co-educa-tional secondary schools into separate boys* and girls’ schools; but if this course of action is admitted to be right and proper then the Technical High Schools also should be so changed. Indications have not been wanting that this has been under contemplation. This would, however, mean the abandonment of one of the aims which 1 believe to be most cherished by those who have had the task of building up our Technical High School system, which is based upon the principle that the preparation of girls and boys for their future lives is best carried on in the same environment and under the influence of the same esprit de corps and that only as these conditions are observed is it possible to provide the training best calculated to enable them to adapt themselves wisely to the complex relationships of adult life. Co-educational schools are justified by experience. It is indeed difficult to understand how anyone acquainted with the history of education can oppose co-educational secondary schools seeing that they have been in .existence for generations and that in some countries separated schools are quite the .exception. In Scotland, co-educa-tional schools are the general rule and it is only in the largest, towns where there are old foundations, that separated public secondary schools occur. There is no people that has shown a greater enthusiasm for education or has a. greater reputation for canniness than the Scotch, so that the experience of Scotland carries the greatest weight in matters educational. I have heard it urged that the Scotch are phlegmatic, and difficulties that would arise with other more volatile races would not show themselves in this country. But what of Wales? Here we have a lively and emotional people, and what do we find? Some thirty years ago a public secondary school system was for the first time established in this country and all the schools then brought into existence were made co-educational, and every new school that has been founded since has been of the same type. In the United States of America, of course, public secondary schools are almost all co-educational, except in the large cities of the Eastern States, and in the case of specialised trade schools.

It may be urged that in New Zealand we should follow English traditions. What then is English practice? it is, of course a fact that all the old established schools are boys’ schools, since at. the time of their foundation the education of girls was thought of no account. It was therefore only natural that, an effort should have been made to redress the balance by tire foundation of special High Schools for girls all over the country as has been done since 1870. The existence of this large number of separated schools is sufficient to account for any tendency among those educated in England to regard the separated ■■chool as the proper type, because we ire rightly inclined to glorify our own . Ima mater. It is nevertheless-signi-icant that many of the newer school? n England are mixed schools, and his is specially true of those which conform to our own type.

The following are. I believe, the reasons most commonly urged against co-education: —

(1). It is said that the education of boys and gii'ls together at the stage of adolescence causes an over-emphasis o! - ex feelings and is therefore dangerms. This is actually the reverse of he truth, for it is a well-known fact .hat the more familiar boys and girls are with one another the less are they conscious of sex difference. Westermarck in his History of Human Marriage makes an exhaustive study of exogamy or marriage outside the community, and shows that the practice is based upon the fact that what is strange is more attractive than that which is similar. He states indeed that there is an abundance of ethnographical facts to prove that prohibitory laws against intermarriage were determined in the first instance, not by the degrees of consanguinity, but by close living together.. In the growth of human society, therefore, it has been recognised as the abnormal and unnatural thing that those who are closely associated in the ordinary avocations of life should be influenced by sex-feel-ings towards one another, and this is surely in accord with the experience of those who have worked in mixed schools. In these schools boys and girls are not altogether free from romantic episodes, but when these occur they are almost invariably between boys and girls of different schools, not of the same. As Westermarck says, a boy tends to regard any girl with whom he has been associated at school as “not a real girl” that is, not one who makes him aware of sex feeling; and it is one of the most striking features of mixed schools that they so well illustrate this principle of the unattractiveness of the familiar. What therefore has been urged as a drawback of mixed schools is really a chimera. They indeed offer instead the great advantage that the sex instincts are kept in the background at a time of life when they threaten to become absorbing, and thus energies are set free for other and healthier purposes. While the school must not attempt to suppress the feelings that are natural to this period of life, it must endeavour to sublimate them. Many opponents of co-education are doubtless influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the conventual notions of the Middle Ages, when the ideal aimed at was the separation of the sexes and the'.unmarried state was regarded as the highest. With thosewho still hold such views argument is unprofitable; but the world is wide enough to allow them room to carry out their ideas.

(2). A more valid objection is sometimes urged on the ground that girls mature earlier than boys; and since during this process mental and physical strain should be relaxed it is not desirable that girls should be required to work with and keep pace with boys This difficulty, however, is not peculiar to mixed schools, for is it not a general experience in classes of girls only that some girls are so keen that they have to be restrained rather than stimulated? Whether classes are mixed or separated the teacher should be always on the alert to recognise signs of strain and prompt to prevent it, “Health first” must be a slogan for every teacher. (?,). It is also maintained that during adolescence it is undesirable for boys to be taught by women and girls by

men. Various reasons have been urged.— (a) Girls “get round” men teachers easily; (b) Teachers favour pupils of opposite sex; (c) There is danger of affection being aroused for a teacher of opposite sex.

With regard to (a) and (b) I cannot but believe that the danger is negligible with teachers of ordinary perspicacity, good sense, and fairmindedness; and if teachers are lacking in these they will show their weakness as well in a separated school. The disastrous effects produced by gullibility or favouritism on the part of a teacher are obvious wherever they occur. That affection is occasionally roused for a teacher of opposite sex is only to be expected, especially in the later stages of adolescence when it is not uncommon for a boy (or girl) to cherish sentimental feelings for someone much older than himself. But is any harm done? It is very doubtful; and in any case the boy (or girl) would probably have passed through the same phase with some other person if not with a teacher with whom there is an implied guarantee of sound moral character.

(4). It is sometimes urged by wo-men-teachers that if there are no schools for girls only there will be no Headmistresses and therefore little inducement for women of outstandingability to enter the teaching profession. It is very much open to question whether there is any force whatever in this objection. How many of those who are prominent in the teaching profession have entered it because of the highly paid positions that are open to them? Has the primary service failed to attract admirable women teachers although none of the large schools are at present under Headr mistresses? To the best teachers, whether they are Heads or Assistants teaching is a vocation. • With the status of women constantly improving, the question of the disparity in position and remuneration will in time settle itself; but even to-day. with the official recognition of Senior Mistresses who may also be departmental Heads, tho emolument of such a position may be little different from that of the Headmistress of a small separated school, and the. argument loses nearly all its weight.