FEMALE EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 287, 14 March 1874, Page 2

FEMALE EDUCATION IN AMERICA.

Irr will naturally be asked what effect this joint system of education has upon both sexes. The reply to this will be found in a report by Dr Pairchild upon Oberlin College, one of the best known institutions of the kind in America. Tho report is republishcd in, another column, and it is worthy of carefnl study, being, tho writer in The Westminster says, tho best digest of tho subject that has been yet given. Dr Fairchild^ 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 tho American system of education. It is particularly noted that the grade of scholarship of the young men is in no wise lowered by tho joint work, but on the contrary, the n\eragc is higher. * To be definite upon the point,' rcimirkß The Westminster, it has seemed to us that these marvellous feats of scholarship which sometimes occurs in bojs' schools, are not so likely, to occur in a joint school, whero a little more of the domestic and social element it found. On the other hand, from a long and close observation we feel justified in sayiug the average* scholarship » higher. There is moro 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 the girls only through his cla3s-work, ho feels more* especially bound to make this creditable. It would be easy to accumulate authority upon these points, but the opinions wo bavo given aro thoio held by tho wry large majority of the educators of the country. 1 Michigan TJniversitj 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 into the Arts classes. This bold adventurer 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 en» trance. This enabled her to stop at once into the front rank of the class of 200 young men. who ljad been in the University a year before her. No sooner was she there than tbo dread and anticipated restraint on the part of the young men were forgotten, and the most chiralrio feeling sprang up in its place. For a whole year Miss Stockwoll was alone in tho Arts classes among- 700 or SOO young men, yet nothing ever occurred to make her feel in tha slightest degree uncomfortable. Sho took her- B.A. degree in the summer of 1872 as the first Greek scholar in the University. The Professor of Civil Engineering has been in the habit of giving to his \ class each year a particular mathematical problem as a test of their ability, Not onca during lS.years had any member of the cla3s solved il, though the Professor states that during that time ho had propoundad it to 1,500 young men. JJast year, as usual, tho old problem was again presontcd to tho class. A Miss Whito alone of nil' the class brought in tho solution. The best student in the Law School last year was a woman.' Facts like these, and tho undeniable statements of unprejudiced witnesses, produce tho impression that Americans in the matter of education, as in many other things, arc much wiser than wo ure in their drjy and generation. — Waikoiiaili Herald.