The Problems of Mixed-Gender Education

Among other things, educational institutions are entrusted with the task of ensuring a good learning environment. Despite providing top-class facilitates and equipment, this objective is often defeated in co-educational institutions by the very concept of running a mixed-gender education. Miles O’Brien, the ex-professor of Political Economy expressed his disapproval as thus:

“I came away from the University convinced by my five years of teaching co-eds that education is a failure. Whatever may be the motives that actuate the young ladies in coming to the university, they soon divide into two well-defined groups. The members of one group work hard, they usually maintain in a high class standing and injure their health. The members of the other group devote their chief attention to the young men. This results in cardiac enlargement rather than cerebral development. And as to young men, it will be unreasonable to expect any young man with red blood in his veins to devote his evenings to physics or higher mathematics, when there is a sweet young lady waiting to entertain him. Love and war may well go together, but emotional disturbances evoked by love in a young man of twenty are far too great to permit serious study.” (Education of our girls)

While the ex-professor points to the emotional aspect, other defects can also be spotted out in the co-educational system.

This includes the Mental Disposition of both sexes. A man’s mind is logical, he gives assent after a slow methodical process of thought and this as a result makes subjects like mathematics and engineering suitable for the man. While a woman’s mind being intuitional, does not undergo the same process as man’s, instead she assents because she “feels” it is right. She often makes decisions based on how she feels about it. This makes subjects such as music, poetry, art etc suitable for the cerebral development of the woman. Although she may study courses likes Mathematics, it must be at a lesser degree when compared to that of the male sex. Since the primary aim of education is to develop the mind, it is not right – to say the least – to develop the mind of both sexes with same method, on same subjects and in the same institution! We will agree that due to obvious reasons, the co-educational curriculum does not adequately cover the aspects necessary for the development of the female mind. Hence, the necessity of a separate educational system for the girls. The male and the female are complementary to each other. No woman in her right state of mind can appreciate a man who acts like a woman; and same also applies to the men who in their right state of mind will not appreciate a woman built on masculine lines. Since both minds are built with same method, such as the co-educational system, they both end up becoming “duplicates” instead of “complements“.

A cursory glance at the medieval education system is enough to point out the great benefits of the single-gender education. This system produced great minds whose works remain unsurpassed in our time. This is no surprise for they, amongst other things, had an environment with less distractions – especially from the opposite sex. Being quite different, both physically and mentally, the male and female at some later stage, they could be separated to ensure better development of their mental and moral life.

Kyrie Eleison.