COEDUCATION, a method of the liberal education of women and of men in the same college, under similar con ditions, and with similar results. It is the method commonly prevailing in American colleges and universities. About three-fourths of all colleges are open to both men and women; the larger share of the remaining one-quarter are open to men only, and the balance, a small number, to women only. The method of coeducation began in Ohio sev enty years ago. It has received constant enlargement. Nearly all State univer sities are now open to both sexes with out discrimination. Since coeducation has become the rule, and since separate colleges for women have been estab lished, a method called the co-ordinate has come into view. It represents a uni versity in which a college for women is established, and in which a college for men is also established, each college ad ministered as a separate unit. Yet in its administration, certain executive of ficers are frequently identical and the members of the two faculties may be granted the right to exchange instruc tion. The more outstanding examples of this method are Barnard College in Columbia, Radcliffe in Harvard, the Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane Uni versity, New Orleans, the Brown Uni versity Women's College, and the Col lege for Women of Western Reserve University.
Coeducation possesses certain advan tages and disadvantages over separate education. It has the advantage of economy. Many colleges and univer sities of the Western States were, at their beginning, designed for both women and men, because the people, either as a community or through the churches, believed they ought not to af ford two colleges in a single common wealth. Coeducation, also, is said by its defenders to possess certain rich per sonal advantages. It is declared, how ever not without dissent, that it tends to make the male students more cour teous. It is also declared that it tends to promote a high type of moral char acter. For women, too, it is affirmed by its adherents to have special ad vantages. It develops the forceful type
of character, a type which the woman who is to make her way in the world should embody. It is also believed by some that the freer life of the coedu cational college tends to do away with fret, and morbidness, and worry, results which are not unknown when women are educated in a group separated from other groups.
Women, themselves graduates of a co educational college, are very emphatic in their belief in its exceptional worthi ness. One says: "I believe that intel lectually both sexes are stimulated and helped by association with each other, and that morally the habits of each are improved or kept from deteriorating, as is too frequently the case when either sex gets together in large numbers. There is set up a healthful interchange of thought and magnetic attraction be tween the sexes, which, when not de based, adds the chief charm to society and lays the foundation for the greatest spiritual development and inspiration of both." Another declares: "It does away with much false modesty that afflicts girls who are kept to themselves, while it does not in the least detract from a girl's true modesty and refinement." An other says: "It leads to a broader sym pathy, a truer understanding between men and women; and it tends to banish that consciousness of sex which is inim ical to purity of mind." Another gradu ate declares: "It makes them stronger men and women; they understand each other better; judge of character better; ive a higher mutual respect. It takes ale simpering out of girls—the rough ness out of men." Two or three disadvantages are, how ever, to be noted. The coeducational col lege is more difficult to administer than the separate, and it is the more difficult in proportion to the intimacy of rela tionship existing between the two sets of students. Different degrees of intimacy are common in coeducation. Simple r presence of men and women in common recitation room represent one extreme.