

THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



NOVEMBER, 1902. 



SOME REFLECTIONS UPON THE REACTION FEOM 



COEDUCATION. 



By Professor JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL, 



UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 



r | THE authorities of many of our great coeducational universities 

 -- have been of late much perplexed and depressed at the astonish- 

 ing number of young women who insist on patronizing these institu- 

 tions. Taken in moderation the coeducational young woman has 

 succeeded in approving herself to a considerable majority of her in- 

 structors. But she has recently shown a disposition to outnumber the 

 young men in her classes, and this is resented by certain of her mentors 

 as an obvious impropriety. The occasion has been seized upon by re- 

 actionaries here and there to magnify the drawbacks of coeducation, 

 and there can be no question that many members of the faculties of 

 institutions committed to this system are restive under the extant 

 conditions, and apprehensive for the future. A few, especially certain 

 of those educated in eastern non-coeducational institutions or in 

 foreign universities, are severely, not to say bitterly, critical in their 

 attitude, and eager for anything so it be a change. We may there- 

 fore expect in the near future much experimentation, and more dis- 

 cussion, upon the coeducational program. As a symptom of the edu- 

 cational development of the country at large, the present agitation 

 possesses an interest and significance quite beyond the limits of the 

 regions immediately affected. 



In order to see the present situation in its just perspective one 

 must bear in mind the remarkable educational development which has 

 occurred in recent years in those parts of the country where coeducation 



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