KOEDUKACIJOS PROBLEMA VIDURINĖSE IR AUKŠTESNIOSIOSE XX a. PRADŽIOS LIETUVOS MOKYKLOSE
Coeducation in Secondary and Higher Schools in Lithuania in the Early 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses coeducation, which was a topical issue in the early 20th century: articles on this subject published in the interwar press, and speeches, are analysed, and the stenograms of Seimas meetings are presented. Most discussions on coeducation arose in the context of secondary and higher education. Some people considered coeducation as a natural principle of education, others supposed that higher schools where boys were taught together with girls would be temporary, dictated by the poor economic and social conditions. Discussions between the Left, supporting coeducation, and the Catholic Church, which was against coeducation, were very often based on hearsay regarding the advantages and disadvantages of coeducation, but not on actual facts. The first article in Lithuanian which analysed the question in detail was published in 1919 in a magazine on educational issues Lietuvos mokykla ("School of Lithuania"). P. Dovydaitis, the author of this article, and the publisher and editor of the magazine, described the circumstances of the origin of mixed schools and their evolution in different countries (the USA, Scandinavia, Russia and Lithuania), and discussed the main reasons and principles of coeducation. Dovydaitis also discussed coeducation issues at meetings of the Catholic Schools Union of Lithuania, of which he was chairman from 1920 to 1924, and in the magazine Naujoji vaidilutė that was run by him.

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