io2 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



teachers are all women, in some mostly men, and in others a more or 

 less equal division obtains. In nearly all these institutions, those old 

 traditions of education and discipline are more prevalent than in 

 colleges for men, and nearly all retain some trace of religious or denom- 

 irational control. In all, the Zeitgeist is producing more or less 

 commotion, and the changes in their evolution are running parallel with 

 those in colleges for men. 



2. In annexes for women to colleges for men. In these, part of the 

 instruction to the men is repeated for the women, though in different 

 classes or rooms, and there is more or less opportunity to use the same 

 libraries and museums. In some other institutions, the relations are 

 closer, the privileges of study being similar, the difference being mainly 

 in the rules of conduct by which the young women are hedged in, the 

 young men making their own. 



It seems to me that the annex system cannot be a permanent one. 

 The annex student does not get the best of the institution, and the best 

 is none too good for her. Sooner or later she will demand it, or go 

 where the best is to be had. The best students will cease to go to the 

 annex. The institution must then admit women on equal terms, or not 

 admit them at all. There is certainly no educational reason why a 

 woman should prefer the annex of one institution when another equally 

 good throws its doors wide open to her. 



3. The third system is that of coeducation. In this system young 

 men and young women are admitted to the same classes, subjected to the 

 same requirements, and governed by the same rules. This system is 

 now fully established in the State institutions of the North and West, 

 and in most other colleges in the same region. Its effectiveness has 

 long since passed beyond question among those familiar with its oper- 

 ation. Other things being equal, the young men are more earnest, better 

 in manners and morals, and in all ways more civilized than under 

 monastic conditions. The women do more work in a more natural way, 

 with better perspective and with saner incentives than when isolated 

 from the influence of society of men. There is less of silliness and 

 folly where a man is not a novelty. In coeducational institutions of 

 high standards, frivolous conduct or scandals of any form are rarely 

 known. The responsibility for decorum is thrown from the school to 

 the woman, and the woman rises to the responsibility. Many professors 

 have entered western colleges with strong prejudices against coeduca- 

 tion. These prejudices have not often endured the test of experience 

 with men who have made an honest effort to form just opinions. 



It is not true that the character of the college work has been in any 

 way lowered by coeducation. The reverse is decidedly the case. It is 

 true that untimely zeal of one sort or another has filled the West with a 

 host of so-called colleges. It is true that most of these are weak and 



