FEMALE EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

Evening Star, Issue 3421, 7 February 1874, Page 3

FEMALE EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

It will naturally be asked what effect this joint system of education has upon both sexes. The reply to this will bo found in a report by Dr Eaircbild upon Obcrlin College, one of the best known institutions of the kind in America. The report is republished in another column, audit is worthy of careful study, being, the writer in ‘The Westminster’ says, tho best digest of the subject that has been ytt given. Dr Fairchild’s statements are corroborated by those of other eminent; American educators, and also by the observations of English commissioners specially appointed to inquire into and report upon the American system of education. It is particularly noted that the grade of scholarship °f ihe young men is in no wise lowered by tho joint work, but on the contrary, the average is higher. “To be definite upon the point,” remarks ‘ The Westminister,’ “ it has seemed to us that those marvellous feats of scholarship which sometimes occur in boys’ schools, are not so likely to occur in a joint school, where a little more of the domestic and social element is found. On the other hand, from a long and close observation we feel justified iu saying the average scholarship is higher. There is more general stimulus for good scholarship. The standard of respectability is somewhat different from what it is in a school exclusively for boys. A boy may secure the respect of his boy associates by being an adept on the playground, or Generally a good fellow, but as he is known to thegirlsonly through his class-work, he feels more especially bound to make this creditable. It would be easy to accumulate authority upon these points, but the opinions we have given are those held by the very large majority of the educators of the county.’ Michigan University is spoken of as the best institution of the kind that has yet opened its doors to women, and the following notes of its history will be interesting “The first year only one woman came came into the Arts classes. This bold venturer was the daughter of a deceased Professor, by whom she had been trained up to a point a good deal in advance of the requisites for entrance. This enabled her to step at once into tho front rank of the class of two hundred young men, who had been in the University a year before her. No sooner was she there than the dread and anticipated restraint on the part of the young men were forgotten, and the most chivalric feelin" sprang up in its place. For a whole year Miss Stockwell was alone in the Arts classes among seven or eight hundred young men. yet nothing ever occurred to make her feei in the slightest degree uncomfortab’e. She took her B.A. degree in the summer of 1872 as the first Greek scholar ia the University. The Professor of Civil Engineering has been in the habit of giving to bis class each year a particular mathematical problem as a test of their ability. JN’ot once during fifteen years had any member of the class solved it, though the Professor slates that during that time he had propounded it to 1,500 young men. Last year, as usual, the old problem was again presented to the class. A Miss White alone of all the class brought in the solution. The best student in tho Law School last year was a woman.” Facta like these, and the undeniable statements of unprejudiced witnesses, produce the impression that Americans in the matter of education, as in many other things, are much wiser than we arc in their clay and generation.