fleeted in all of the schools founded in Oregon, is the disbelief in co-education. The attitude of the church may perhaps be best summed up in the words of an editorial writer which appeared in the Oregon Churchman, the church paper, in February, 1872,[1] "Is not the confusion of the respective spheres of man and woman, to which there is now a tendency, the result of what are called mixed schools? i. e., schools in which boys and girls are taught together. So long as there are two sexes, and each sex has its characteristic virtues and duties, so long will there be a necessity that each sex receive a peculiar treatment suited to perfect its special character. One method for both will produce confusion and hinder the highest attainments of each. In infancy and in maturity, when the difference of sex is either undeveloped or fixed the sexes mix freely and to advantage; but when boys and girls whose characteristics are in the process of formation are equally taught together in one method, they must lose the special perfection in which respectively their attainments and usefulness would be the greatest; and in due time society will be supplied with those monsters, which even now shock us, masculine women and effeminate men."
The history of Episcopal education in Oregon may be shown to include four rather well defined periods. In the first period, running from 1852 to 1869, it had its origin. In the second period, from 1869 to 1890, Portland saw a tremendous expansion in its population and prosperity, and the Episcopal schools enjoyed a similar growth. The period from 1890 to 1904 saw the rapid growth of the public schools, when there was keen competition, and the private schools, including those of the church, failed to keep pace with the growth of the city, and the fourth period saw the complete triumph of the public schools
- ↑ The author of this article is not given. Altho written several years after the first schools were started, it seems to reflect the attitude of the church during the entire period as well as in England and other parts of America.
