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It wasn't until the late nineteenth century that boys and girls began to study in school together, and prior to that development education was at its peak. I don't think anyone would disagree that young people learned more a hundred years ago than they do now - at least of the so-called core curriculum. History, literacy, math, languages, art, geography - all of these were mastered earlier and more thoroughly by students (male or female) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, than they are now. Is it an accident that the high point in basic education was reached when single-sex instruction was in its final, glorious fruition? Is it coincidental that coeducation and educational decline both set in at approximately the same time?

You may be surprised that I think it was entirely coincidental. I believe that the decline was caused by factors other than the influence of the fair sex in the classroom. The decline - like most declines - had been a long time in brewing, and could trace its roots back to a host of unwise decisions: abandonment of the classical languages, abandonment of objective ideals in the formation of character, abandonment of 'natural law' thinking, adoption of 'judgement-free' standards, and a host of others.

Nevertheless, I don't think any coed school has ever achieved the scholastic heights attained by even the public school system in Britain, let alone the great universities in their golden (and single-sex) age. Boys learn better surrounded by other boys, because they're more focussed and less distracted, and the same can be said for girls. There will plenty of time in the future for the little scholars to explore the mysteries of commingled sexuality; allow them, for the nonce, the advantage of studying in the relative calm of an unsexualized environment.

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