of family life. Ackworth school was established by the London Yearly Meeting in 1779 for the education of boys and girls; but the school has never been fully co-educational, the boys and girls being taught separately except in a few classes. At Sidcot school, which was founded in 1808 by the Associated Quarterly Meetings in the west of England for the education of children of Friends, boys and girls are taught together, except in certain handicraft subjects. Several other co-educational schools were founded by the Society of Friends during the first half of the 19th century.
Since that time the movement towards co-education in secondary schools and universities has steadily gained strength in England. It has been furthered by the diffusion of Pestalozzian ideas and also by the influence of American example. In England, private schools have made some of the most valuable co-educational experiments. A private boarding and day secondary school on co-educational lines was instituted by Mr W. A. Case in Hampstead in 1865. A co-educational boarding-school was founded in 1869 by Miss Lushington at Kingsley near Alton, Hants. In 1873 Mr W. H. Herford began the Ladybarn school for boys and girls at Withington in the suburbs of Manchester. The passing of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 led to the establishment of a considerable number of new mixed or dual secondary day-schools in Wales. Many English teachers gained experience in these schools and subsequently influenced English education. The work and writings of Mr J. H. Badley at Bedales, Petersfield, a co-educational boarding-school of the first grade, gave greatly increased weight to the principle of co-education. Important additions have also been made to the fund of co-educational experience by the King Alfred’s school (Hampstead), Keswick school, and West Heath school (Hampstead). In 1907 a Public Co-educational Boarding School was opened at Harpenden.
Since the Education Act 1902 became law, there has been a rapid increase of co-educational secondary day-schools of the lower grade, under county or borough education authorities, in all parts of England. This increase is due to two chief causes, viz. (1) The co-educational tradition of some of the higher grade board schools, many of which have become secondary schools; and (2) the economy effected by establishing one co-educational secondary school, in place of two smaller schools for boys and girls separately.
The idea of co-education in secondary schools has spread in several other European countries, especially in Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In Scandinavia, the new practice appears to have begun with the establishment of a private higher secondary school, the Palmgremska Samskolan, in Stockholm, in 1876. A similar school, Nya Svenska Läroverket, was founded upon the same model in Helsingfors, Finland, in 1880. In Norway, the law of 1896 introduced co-education in all state schools. In Denmark, as in Norway, co-education was begun in private schools; on its proving a success there, it was introduced into the state schools, with two exceptions; and it is now obligatory in most state schools but optional in private schools (J. S. Thornton, Schools Public and Private in the North of Europe, 1907, p. 97). In Holland, there is now a good deal of co-education in lower secondary schools of the modern type. For example, at Utrecht, the state higher burgher school provides the same course of instruction, except in gymnastics, for boys and girls. At Almeloo, the municipal higher burgher school, though co-educational, differentiates the classes in several subjects. In Belgium, France, Germany and Austria, co-education, though frequent in elementary schools, is regarded as undesirable in secondary; but the movement in its favour in many parts of Germany seems to be gathering strength. All over Europe the Roman Catholic populations prefer the older ideal of separate schools for boys and girls.
Co-education in colleges and universities, which began at Oberlin, Ohio, in 1833, was adopted almost without exception by the state universities throughout the west of America from 1862 onwards. Since that time the idea has spread rapidly throughout Europe, and the presence of women students at universities originally confined to men is one of the most striking educational facts of the age.
Co-education in the United Kingdom, (a) England and Wales.—The Board of Education does not possess any summary showing the number of pupils in mixed public elementary schools or in mixed departments of such schools. In 1901, out of 31,502 departments of public elementary schools in England and Wales, nearly half (15,504) were mixed departments, in which boys and girls were educated together. But as the departments were of unequal size, it must not be inferred from this that half the children in public elementary schools in that year (5,883,762) were receiving co-education. Of the total number of departments in public elementary schools in England and Wales, the percentage of mixed schools fell from 51.6 in 1881 to 49.4 in 1891 and 49.2 in 1901. But these percentages must not be taken to prove an absolute decline in the number of children in mixed departments.
In England, out of 492 public secondary schools which were recognized by the Board of Education for the receipt of government grant for the school year ending July 31, 1905, and which contained 85,358 pupils, 108 schools, with 21,720 pupils, were mixed; and 20 schools, with 8980 pupils, were dual schools.
Thus, of the total number of pupils in the secondary schools referred to above, a little over 25% were in mixed schools, and about 10% were in dual schools. It is not safe to assume, however, that all the mixed schools were completely co-educational in their work, or that the dual schools were not co-educational in respect of certain subjects or parts of the course. It should also be remembered that, besides the secondary schools recognized by the Board of Education for the receipt of government grant, there is a considerable number of great endowed secondary boarding-schools (“public schools” in the English use of that expression) which are for boys only. There are also at least 5000 private secondary schools, of which, in 1897 (since when no comprehensive statistical inquiry has been made), 970, with 26,027 pupils, were mixed schools. But the great majority of the children in these mixed schools were under twelve years of age. The number of boys and girls over twelve years of age, in the mixed private secondary schools which were included in the 1897 return, was only 5488.
In Wales, for the school year ending July 31, 1905, out of 84 state-aided public secondary schools, 11 were mixed and 44 were dual schools. The number of scholars in the Welsh schools referred to above was 9340. Of these, 1457, or 15%, were in mixed schools, and 5085, or 54%, were in dual schools. The managers of dual schools in Wales have the power to arrange that boys and girls shall be taught together in any or all the classes; and, as a matter of fact, nearly all the dual schools are worked as mixed schools, though they appear in these figures under dual.
(b) Scotland.—In the public elementary schools, including the higher grade schools of Scotland, co-education is the almost universal rule. The exceptions, which for the most part are Roman Catholic or Episcopal Church schools, tend to diminish year by year. In 1905, out of 3843 departments in the Scotch public elementary and higher grade schools, 3783 were mixed. These include the infant departments. Out of the total number of children in the public elementary and higher grade schools, including infants’ departments, 98.43% were receiving co-education.
In the secondary schools of Scotland there has been in recent years little perceptible movement either towards co-education or away from it. What movement there is, favours the establishment of separate secondary schools for girls in the large centres of population. Out of 109 public secondary schools in Scotland in 1905–1906, 29 schools were for boys only and 40 schools for girls only. One school had boys and girls in separate departments. In the remaining 39 schools, boys and girls were taken together to an extent which varied with the subjects taken; but there was nothing of the nature of a strict separation of the sexes as regards the ordinary work of the school.
(c) Ireland.—In Ireland, the percentage of pupils on the rolls of mixed national schools (i.e. schools attended by boys and
