Task 7: Read the text and comment on it

“Any form of education other than co-education is simply unthinkable”

Imagine being asked to spend twelve or so years of your life in a society winch consisted only of members of your own sex. How would you react? Unless there was something definitely wrong with you, you wouldn't be too happy about it, to say the least. It is all the more surprising therefore 5 that so many parents in the world choose to impose such abnormal conditions on their children - conditions which they themselves wouldn't put up with for one minute!

Any discussion of this topic is bound to question the aims of education. Stuffing children's heads full of knowledge is far from being foremost among them. One of the chief aims of education is to equip future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. Now adult society is made up of men and women, so how can a segregated school possibly offer the right sort of preparation for it? Anyone entering adult society alter years of segregation can only be in for a shock.

A co-educational school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature. Boys and girls are given the opportunity to get to know each other, to learn to live together from their earliest years. They are put in a position where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of academic ability, athletic achievement and many of the extra- auricular activities which are part of school life. What a practical advantage it is (to give just a small example) to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense co-education makes of the argument that boys are cleverer than gills or vice-versa. When segregated, boys and girls are made to feel that they are a race apart. Rivalry between the sexes is fostered. In a co-educational school, everything falls into its proper place.

But perhaps the greatest contribution of co-education is the healthy attitude to life it encourages. Boys don't grow up believing that women are mysterious creatures - airy goddesses, more like book-illustrations to a fairy-tale, than human beings. Girls don't grow up imagining that men are romantic heroes. Years of living together in school dispel illusions of this kind. There are no goddesses with freckles, pigtails, piercing voices and inky fingers. There are no romantic heroes with knobby knees, dirty fingernails and unkempt hair. The awkward stage of adolescence brings into sharp focus some of the physical and emotional problems involved in growing up. These can better be overcome in a co-educational environment. Segregated schools sometimes provide the right conditions for sexual deviation. This is hardly possible under a co-educational system. When the time comes for the pupils to leave school, they are fully prepared to enter society as well-adjusted adults. They have already had years of experience in coping with many of the problems that face men and women.

Task 8: make up the dialogue on the topic indicated in the title of the text above, use the following key-words for arguments and counter-arguments:

1: arguments:

1. imagine spending 12 years with members of own sex; many parents impose these conditions on their children;

2. discussion of the topic must question aims of education; not only accumulation of knowledge; equipping future citizens for adult society; segregating schools: not the right sort of preparation;

3. co-educational school: society in miniature; boys and girls learn to live together; can compare themselves: academic and athletic abilities, school activities; many practical advantages: e. g. school plays; boys and girls are not made to feel race apart;

4. co-education encourages healthy attitudes to life; boys: no illusions about women; girls: no illusions about men; no romantic heroes, no romantic goddesses; physical and emotional adolescent problems best overcome in co-educational environment; sexual deviation hardly possible; pupils enter society as well-adjusted adults.

2. counter-arguments:

1.school is not a miniature society;it is highly artificial, unrelated to outside world; it is a training ground: a very special society in its own right;

2. many teachers claim better work done in segregated schools; greater achievements academically, socially, in athletics, etc.; children from segregated schools have greater self-confidence when they leave;

3. many more practical advantages in segregated schools: e.g. administration; adolescent problems better dealt with – easier for teachers to handle; sexual deviations, greatly exaggerated; no distractions – co-educational schools often lead to disastrous early marriages;

4. segregated schools have successfully existed for centuries: a proof of their worth; in many countries, the most famous schools are segregated; thousands of great men and women attended segregated schools: e.g. W. Churchill.

Task 9: Read, translate, comment.