Mixed-sex education

Mixed-sexed education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to the 19th century, mixed-sex has since become standard in many cultures, particularly in Western countries. Single-sex education, however, remains prevalent in many Muslim countries. The relative merits of both systems have been the subject of debate.

History

If the sexes were educated together, we should have the healthy, moral and intellectual stimulus of sex ever quickening and refining all the faculties, without the undue excitement of senses that results from novelty in the present system of isolation.

— Elizabeth Cady Stanton^[1]

In early civilizations, people were educated informally: primarily save within the household. As time progressed, education became more structured and formal. Women often had very few rights when education started to become a more important aspect of civilization. Efforts of the ancient Greek and Chinese societies focused primarily on the education of males. In ancient Rome, the availability of education was gradually extended to women, but they were taught separately from men. The early Christians and medieval Europeans continued this trend, and single-sex schools for the privileged classes prevailed through the Reformation period. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, coeducation grew much more widely accepted. In Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union, the education of girls and boys in the same classes became an approved practice. In the 16th century, at the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic church reinforced the establishment of free elementary schools for children of all classes. The concept of universal elementary education, regardless of sex, had been created.^[2] After the Reformation, coeducation was introduced in western Europe, when certain Protestant groups urged that boys and girls should be taught to read the Bible. The practice became very popular in northern England, Scotland, and colonial New England, where young children, both male and female, attended dame schools. In the late 18th century, girls gradually were admitted to town schools. The Society of Friends in England, as well as in the United States, pioneered coeducation as they did universal education, and in Quaker settlements in the British colonies, boys and girls commonly attended school together. The new free public elementary, or common schools, which after the American Revolution supplanted church institutions, were almost always coeducational, and by 1900 most public high schools were coeducational as well.^[3]

The early success and achievement of women at Oberlin College persuaded many early women's rights leaders that coeducation would soon be accepted throughout the country. However, for quite a while, women sometimes suffered uncivil behavior from their male classmates. The prejudice of some male professors proved more unsettling. Many professors had disapproved of the admission of women into their classes, citing studies that stated that women were physically incapable of higher education, and some professors found it difficult to acknowledge women's presence once they were admitted.^[1] Even today, there have been books, studies, and other arguments claiming that women and men learn very differently from each other because of their brain differences. One of these books is Boys and Girls Learn Differently! by Michael Gurian.^[4]

By the end of the 19th century, 70% of American colleges were coeducational, although the state of Florida was a notable exception, moving toward greater separation of education at state schools as mandated by the Buckman Act in 1905 and only returning fully to coeducation in the system redesign prompted by the end of World War II. In the late 20th century, many institutions of higher learning that had been exclusively for people of one sex became coeducational.

China

The first mixed-sex institution of higher learning in China was the Nanjing Higher Normal Institute, which was renamed National Central University and Nanjing University. For millennia in China, public schools, especially public higher learning schools, were for men. Generally only schools established by zongzu (宗族, gens) were for both male and female students. Some schools such as Li Zhi's school in Ming Dynasty and Yuan Mei's school in Qing Dynasty enrolled both male and female students. In the 1910s women's universities were established such as Ginling Women's University and Peking Girls' Higher Normal School, but there were no coeducation in higher learning schools.

Tao Xingzhi, the Chinese advocator of mixed-sex education, proposed The Audit Law for Women Students (規定女子旁聽法案) at the meeting of Nanjing Higher Normal School held on December seventh, 1919. He also proposed that the university recruit female students. The idea was supported by the president Guo Bingwen, academic director Liu Boming, and such famous professors as Lu Zhiwei and Yang Xingfo, but opposed by many famous men of the time. The meeting passed the law and decided to recruit women students next year. Nanjing Higher Normal School enrolled eight Chinese female students in 1920. In the same year Peking University also began to allow women students to audit classes. One of the most notable female students of that time was Jianxiong Wu.

In 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded. The Chinese government has provided more equal opportunities for education since then, and all schools and universities have become mixed-sex. In recent years, however, many female and/or single-sex schools have again emerged for special vocational training needs but equal rights for education still apply to all citizens.

In China Muslim Hui and Muslim Salars are against coeducation, due to Islam, Uyghurs are the only Muslims in China that do not mind coeducation and practice it.^[5]

France

Admission to the Sorbonne was opened to girls in 1860.^[6] The baccalaureat became gender-blind in 1924, giving equal chances to all girls in applying to any universities. Mixed-sex education became mandatory for primary schools in 1957 and for all universities in 1975.^[7]

Hong Kong

St. Paul's Co-educational College was the first mixed-sex secondary school in Hong Kong. It was founded in 1915 as St. Paul's Girls' College. At the end of World War II it was temporarily merged with St. Paul's College, which is a boys' school. When classes at the campus of St. Paul's College were resumed, it continued to be mixed, and changed to its present name. Some others renowned mixed-sex secondary schools in town include Hong Kong Pui Ching Middle School, Queen Elizabeth School and Tsuen Wan Government Secondary School.

Pakistan

Pakistan is one of the many Muslim countries where most schools, colleges and universities are single gender although some universities, colleges and schools are coeducational. In schools that offer O levels and A levels, co-education is quite prevalent. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, most universities were coeducational by name but the proportion of women was less than 5% . After the Islamization policies in early 1980s the government established Women's colleges and Women's universities to promote the Education among women who were hesitant of studying in mixed-sex environment. Today, however, most universities and a large number of schools in urban areas are co-educational.

United Kingdom

Schools

In the United Kingdom the official term is mixed,^[8] and today most schools are mixed. A number of Quaker co-educational boarding schools were established before the 19th century. In England the first non-Quaker mixed-sex public boarding school was Bedales School, founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley and becoming mixed in 1898. The Scottish Dollar Academy claims to be the first (non-Quaker?) mixed-sex boarding school in the UK (in 1818). Many previously single-sex schools have begun to accept both sexes in the past few decades: for example, Clifton College began to accept girls in 1987.^[9]

Higher-education institutions

The first United Kingdom university to allow ladies to enter on equal terms with gentlemen, and hence be admitted to academic degrees, was University College London in 1878, with degrees being conferred upon the United Kingdom's first four female graduates in 1880.^[10] The first institution engaged in educating students, given the University of London's then role was an examining authority, to become fully co-educational was University College London in 1878.

Given their dual role as both boarding house and educational establishment, individual colleges at Oxford and Cambridge remained segregated for much longer. The first Oxford college to house both men and women was the graduate-only Nuffield College in 1937; the first five undergraduate colleges (Brasenose, Hertford, Jesus, St Catherine's and Wadham) became mixed in 1974. The first mixed Cambridge college was the graduate-only Darwin from its foundation in 1964. Churchill, Clare and King's Colleges were the first previously all-male colleges of the University of Cambridge to admit female undergraduates in 1972. Magdalene was the last all-male college to become mixed in 1988.^[11]

The last single-sex college in Oxford, St Hilda's, became mixed as of Michaelmas term 2008; however some Permanent Private Halls still exist which are open only to men. Three colleges remain single-sex (women-only) at Cambridge: Murray Edwards (New Hall), Newnham and Lucy Cavendish.

United States

Cumberland College in Princeton, Kentucky was founded in 1826 and operated until 1861. It was the first college founded by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and was one of the first American institutions to accept female students.^[12]

The oldest extant mixed-sex institute of higher education in the United States is Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, which was established in 1833. Mixed-sex classes were admitted to the preparatory department at Oberlin in 1833 and the college department in 1837.^[13][14] The first four women to receive bachelor's degrees in the United States earned them at Oberlin in 1841. Later, in 1862, the first black woman to receive a bachelor's degree (Mary Jane Patterson) also earned it from Oberlin College. Beginning in 1844, Hillsdale College became the next college to admit mixed-sex classes to four-year degree programs.^[15]

The University of Iowa became the first coeducational public or state university in the United States in 1855,^[16] and for much of the next century, public universities, and land grant universities in particular, would lead the way in mixed-sex higher education. There were also many private coeducational universities founded in the 19th century, especially west of the Mississippi River. East of the Mississippi, Cornell University^[17] and the University of Michigan^[18] each admitted their first female students in 1870.

Around the same time, single-sex women's colleges were also appearing. According to Irene Harwarth, Mindi Maline, and Elizabeth DeBra: "women's colleges were founded during the mid- and late-19th century in response to a need for advanced education for women at a time when they were not admitted to most institutions of higher education."^[19] Notable examples include the Seven Sisters colleges, of which Vassar College is now coeducational and Radcliffe College has merged with Harvard University. Other notable women's colleges that have become coeducational include Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Ohio Wesleyan Female College in Ohio, Skidmore College, Wells College, and Sarah Lawrence College in New York state, Goucher College in Maryland and Connecticut College.

By 1900 the Briton Frederic Harrison said after visiting the United States that "The whole educational machinery of America ... open to women must be at least twentyfold greater than with us, and it is rapidly advancing to meet that of men both in numbers and quality".^[20] Where most of the history of coeducation in this period is a list of those moving toward the accommodation of both genders at one campus, the state of Florida was an exception. In 1905, the Buckman Act was one of consolidation in governance and funding but separation in race and gender, with the campus that became what is now Florida State University designated to serve white females during this era, the campus that became what is now the University of Florida serving white males, and coeducation stipulated only for the campus serving black students at the site of what is now Florida A & M. Florida did not return to coeducation at UF and FSU until after World War II, prompted by the drastically increased demands placed on the higher education system by veterans studying via GI Bill programs following World War II. The Buckman arrangements officially ended with new legislation guidelines passed in 1947.

Primary and secondary schools

Several early primary and secondary schools in the United States were single-sex. Examples include Collegiate School, a boys' school operating in New York by 1638 (which a remains single-sex institution); and Boston Latin School, founded in 1635 (which became coeducational in 1972).

Nonetheless, mixed-sex education existed at the lower levels in the U.S. long before it extended to colleges. For example, in 1787, the predecessor to Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, opened as a mixed-sex secondary school.^[21][22] Its first enrollment class consisted of 78 male and 36 female students. Among the latter was Rebecca Gratz, the first Jewish female college student in the United States. However, the school soon began having financial problems and it reopened as an all-male institution. Westford Academy in Westford, Massachusetts has operated as mixed-sex secondary school since its founding in 1792.^[23]

Co-education fraternities

A number of Greek-letter student societies have either been established (locally or nationally) or expanded as co-ed fraternities.

"Coed" as slang

In American colloquial language, "coed" or "co-ed" is used to refer to a mixed school. The word is also often used to describe a situation in which both sexes are integrated in any form (e.g., "The team is coed"). As a noun, the word "coed" is used to refer to a female student in a mixed gender school.^[24] The noun use is considered sexist and unprofessional by those who argue that it implies that including women somehow transforms what is "normal" (male-only "education") into something different ("coeducation"):^[25][26] technically both male and female students at a coeducational institution should be considered "coeds." Numerous professional organizations require that the gender-neutral term "student" be used instead of "coed" or, when gender is relevant to the context, that the term "female student" be substituted.^{[27][28][29][30]}

Effects of coeducation

For years, a question many educators, parents, and researchers have been asking is whether or not it is academically beneficial to teach to boys and girls together or separately at school. Some argue that coeducation allows males and females of all ages to become more prepared for real-world situations, whereas a student that is only familiar with a single-sex setting could be less prepared, nervous, or uneasy. However, at certain ages, students may be more distracted by the opposite sex in a coeducational setting. This distraction may affect how often a student is willing to raise his or her hand in class and urge students to be less focused on the lesson. According to advocates of coeducation, girls without boy classmates have social issues that may impact adolescent development. Girls may have lower, more traditional aspirations and may choose occupations that tend to be more traditional in nature as opposed to science-related occupations. They argue that the absence of the opposite sex creates an unrealistic environment not duplicated in the real world. In classes that are separated by gender, male and female students work and learn on the same level as their peers, the stereotypical mentality of the teacher is removed, and girls are likely to have more confidence in the classroom than they would in a coeducational class.^[31]

See also

References

Further reading

• Fennell, Shailaja, and Madeleine Arnot. Gender Education and Equality in a Global Context: Conceptual frameworks and policy perspectives (Routledge, 2007)
• Goodman, Joyce, James C. Albisetti, and Rebecca Rogers, eds. Girls' Secondary Education in the Western World: From the 18th to the 20th Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
• Karnaouch, Denise. "Féminisme et coéducation en Europe avant 1914." CLIO. Histoire, Femmes et Sociétés 18 (2003): 21-41.

England

• Albisetti, James C. "Un-learned lessons from the New World? English views of American coeducation and women's colleges, c. 1865–1910." History of Education 29.5 (2000): 473-489.
• Jackson, Carolyn, and Ian David Smith. "Poles apart? An exploration of single-sex and mixed-sex educational environments in Australia and England." Educational Studies 26.4 (2000): 409-422.

United States

• Hansot, Elisabeth, and David Tyack. "Gender in American public schools: Thinking institutionally." Signs (1988): 741-760. in JSTOR
• Lasser, Carol, ed. Educating men and women together: Coeducation in a changing world (1987), colleges
• Tyack, David, and Elizabeth Hansot. Learning together: A history of coeducation in American public schools (Russell Sage Foundation, 1992) on K-12 schools

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Co-education.

• Rosenberg: Coeducation History
• American Council for CoEducational Schooling