CO-EDUCATIONAL SCHOOLS
SIR,—A parenthetical remark in Guy Boas's article on The Omnibus School appears to me of the utmost importance. Referring to the tendency for multilateralism to lead to co-education, he adds that "co-education may or may not be desirable but it should not be an oblique consequence." Co-education is at last getting the attention it deserves ; Russia has scrapped it, Britain is asking for it to a greater extent than ever before. To me, as a convert to the co-educational method, this British trend is gratifying, but the subject is complex and needs much study and careful consideration. A vague desire for a co-educational system on the part of large numbers of parents is not a sufficient reason for founding huge mixed schools. Co-education as an "oblique consequence" is foolish, if not dangerous.
Very much of our co-education has arisen as an oblique consequence. It is interesting to note that the very country which above all others introduced this method on grounds of definite social and educational principle, has given it up in most of its large schools. (The Russians %ay its job is over and the principle has lost its point.) Now some schools have adopted co-education as a basic principle, because they believe human life to be one, and that as male and female must live and co-operate in the world, they should learn to do so at school, with confidence, ease and no nonsense. Not a bad basic principle either—a main one if you like. But these schools are small, in numbers of pupils ; they find they can only live out their faith if they can retain some attributes of the family. A school of 1,500 or 2,000 is not a family, it's a crowd. That is why I submit that it is dangerous to throw together many hundreds of boys and girls, simply because it is expedient. The parents who vote today for co-education know what they want ; they instinctively long for a better relationship between the sexes in national life. But their hope is analogous to the ingenuous hope that international, peace will come by droves of tourists visiting each others' countries. What is needed to satisfy each of these longings is calm, deep, thoughtful, sustained effort, in small corn-
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