ТОП просматриваемых книг сайта:
.
Читать онлайн.
In the tables, the distinction is made between those reporting from female colleges only and those of the co-educational. It is an easy matter, however, to separate them, which I have done, with the following results: Of the whole number (705), 458 are from female colleges; 247 co-educational. For graduate life, the figures for health are exactly the same for both: 83 per cent in good health, and 17 per cent in poor. During college-life 10 per cent of the co-educationalists report poor health, as against 18 per cent of those from female colleges; but this is more than accounted for by the fact that 22 per cent of the latter were in poor health before entering, showing a real gain during college-life of 4 per cent in average health, while the reports of co-educational colleges show a gain of but one per cent. It must be noticed, however, that the female colleges show a falling off of 4·8 percent from good, to fair health, while the co-educational show a similar loss of but 0·3 per cent. The average number of disorders reported is much the same for each class: 1'19 for graduates of female colleges; 1·24 for the other class. The figures as given show that either more care is taken of personal health in the female colleges than in the co-educational, or that more supervision is exercised; for 55 per cent of the former report abstinence from study and exercise during the menstrual period, and only 25 per cent of the latter. The figures for disorders show no corresponding gain, however, the advantage here being on the side of the co-educational institutions, as the latter report 33 per cent of disorders of brain, nerves, and reproductive organs, against 41 per cent in the female colleges. The figures for worry are about the same in each class: 33 per cent report severe study in the co-educational colleges, as against 26 per cent in the other; the advantage in exercise is, however, somewhat on the side of the co-educational college. The figures in the causation of disorders show the same percentages arising from intellectual overwork and physical accident. The female colleges, however, report proportionately over one third more breaking down from emotional strain, while the co-educational colleges balance the account with one fourth more failing in health by reason of bad sanitary conditions.
Of the life since graduation, not much can be said: 23 per cent of the graduates of the female colleges have married; 28 per cent of the co-educational, the average age of each being the same. Competition with men seems to have led a less number of graduates of co-educational colleges to enter the professions; at all events they report but 12 per cent in the professions, while the female colleges report 21 per cent. A somewhat larger number follow teaching, however, the figures here being 48 per cent and 42 per cent respectively.
It would certainly be too much to say from these figures that the personal care and advice from others given in female colleges are greater, while the social surroundings in the co-educational colleges are healthier, because perhaps more natural; but they suggest the advisability of questions directed to these points. The female colleges seem to have the advantage in purely sanitary conditions (except amount of exercise), as witnessed by the smaller percentage reporting bad sanitation as cause of disease; by the advantage of more than two to one of abstinence from study at critical periods, and in moderation of study; while the advantage of health remains on the side of the coeducational during college-life. That the balance shifts after graduation would point in the line of the generalization already suggested; as with the cessation of college-life would cease the abnormal cloistering of the young women, while bad sanitary conditions would show comparatively permanent results. That proportionately one third more in the female colleges report emotional strain as cause of disorders, other causes showing much the same average, point in the same direction. At any rate, it is worth inquiry whether it is not possible to unite the presumed advantage of the female colleges in wise advice and proper attention to health with the freer and more natural social relations of the co-educational institutions.
It is hoped that enough has been said to show the importance of the investigations already made, and to justify the supposition that further more detailed and extended inquiries would increase their value. No educator at all acquainted with the present status of affairs will carp at the results already reached, nor will he find much but cause for thankfulness upon a survey of the field; but his outlook must be directed toward the future, not the past. Nothing could well be more fatal to the cause of woman's education than to suppose that the question is already settled. The commencement has indeed been made, but only the commencement. Mere multiplication of institutions and influences of the existing type, however valuable, as affording opportunities to individual young women, will do little toward determining the larger aspects of the case. Were the number of purely women's colleges largely increased, and were all the important boys' colleges to open their doors to girls, only the necessary basis for the solution of the problem would be obtained.
Such inquiries as we have briefly summarized can do more than aught else to furnish necessary data for a wise and comparatively permanent solution. Discussion on partisan lines is absolutely valueless, and a priori discussion will effect nothing. The unbiased study by educational experts of the fruits actually borne by experience is invaluable, and the generalizations based upon such data will show the lines upon which reform must work itself out. This is not the place to formulate the exact nature of such inquiries, but they should cover at least three heads:
I. Health.—The present report offers a valuable model to follow. More attention should be given to the social and moral environment of college-life, however, even in this point; and the discussion should more definitely concern the specifically female functions.
II. Life since Graduation.—The brief notes respecting marriages and occupations in the report discussed are all we have on this head. It should be treated with a view to determining as accurately as may be the position which the college-educated woman holds and desires to hold in the body social and politic. When we recollect the difficulty in adjusting young men's collegiate education to their life after graduation, in spite of the accumulation of infinite experience, the value of such a report in determining the lines which woman's college education should follow, in the dearth of information upon the topic, is at once seen.
III. Specific Data for Future Movements.—These should be based upon confidential revelations made by the graduates themselves, together with the testimony of college officers and physicians. It should not be limited narrowly. They should go far beyond the question of bodily health. The statement of what each had found the greatest aid and the greatest hindrance in her collegiate training would be of much value. Experience alone can decide the exact form which these inquiries should take, but their importance can hardly be over-estimated in the moral and social aspects of the case.
Education must follow the example of the special sciences. It must organize. There is organization, and to spare, in the schools themselves; what we want is organized recognition of the problems of education; organized study for the discovery of methods of solution; organized application of these methods in the details of school-life. Co-operation in research and application is the key to the problem.
My Pedagogic Creed
Article One. What Education Is
Article Two. What The School Is
Article Three. The Subject-matter Of Education
Article Four. The Nature Of Method
Article Five. The School And Social Progress