ABSTRACT
The Board of Education Report on Education in 1938 said that in that year there were in England and Wales 513 boys' grammar schools, 496 for girls and 389 mixed. It is impossible to guess from these figures in how many of the mixed schools genuine co-education is practised. Co-education means shared education: the two sexes join together in the intellectual and social life of the school. It does not mean identical education by which the boys and girls are taught exactly the same things, at the same time and place. Since each sex is allowed to develop according to its needs, it is idle to use the criticism that it is wrong to give them an identical education. Perhaps the most important arguments against co-education, and certainly the most deeply seated prejudices, are based on the one word sex. To those who wonder if co-education is safe there is the obvious retort that segregation is often unsafe.
