Not
only is this often confessed and deplored, but the incessant
compromises the best male teachers of mixed classes must make with
their pedagogic convictions in both teaching and discipline make the
profession less attractive to manly men of large caliber and of sound
fiber. Again, the recent rapid increase of girls, the percentage of
which to population in high schools has in many communities doubled in
but little more than a decade, almost necessarily involves a decline
in the average quality of girls, perhaps as much greater for them as
compared with boys as their increase has been greater. When but few
were found in these institutions they were usually picked girls with
superior tastes and ability, but now the average girl of the rank and
file is, despite advanced standard, of admission, of an order natively
lower. From this deterioration both boys and teachers suffer, even
though the greatest good for the greatest number may be enhanced. Once
more, it is generally admitted that girls in good boarding-schools,
where evenings, food, and regimen are controlled, are in better health
than day pupils with social, church, and domestic duties and perhaps
worries to which boys are less subject. This is the nascent stage of
periodicity to the slow normalization of which, during these few
critical years, everything that interferes should yield.
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