Susan Vogel, age 15, of Billings, Mont., for her question:

IS COEDUCATION RELATIVELY NEW?

Coeducation means teaching both boys and girls or men and women in the same classrooms. The practice of coeducation developed rapidly in the late 1800s, but before the mid 1800s, boys and girls didn’t go to school together.

As a matter of fact, before the mid 1800s, many persons actually opposed education for girls. Educators barred girls from some U.S. public schools although sometimes they could attend classes only during the lunch hour or after school hours, when boys were not present.

Today most public schools in the United States and Canada are coeducational. But many church controlled and other private schools admit only males or females. Coeducation is also still rare in many foreign countries, especially in secondary schools.

Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, became the first United States coeducational college. In 1835, it announced that young ladies “could attend recitations with young gentlemen in all the departments.” Oberlin graduated three women with the bachelor of arts degree in 1841. Today women may enter graduate and professional schools that were formerly only open to men.