First of all, a shout out to the alumni from the classes of '66, '71, '76 and '81 who came to the reunion on Saturday (Oct. 15). I hope that you all had a good time. I know from my own experience, and episodes of "Everybody loves Raymond" and "Frazer", reunions can be scary events. Regarding these reunions: first, when the class of '66 graduated, they were only 2/3 my age; now they are 7/8 my age. They're catching up. Zeno's Paradox tells us that they will never catch up. (once a math teacher,...)
Secondly, the class of '81 was the only class at this reunion that had "GIRLS" that were alums. That actually prompted my next "Reminiscence".
In 1978, Father Joe Bowen was dealing with the question of whether Ignatius should go "co-ed". In retrospect, it wasn't the adventure (or in some minds, the "misadventure") that we thought that it might be at that time. Since then, Loyola Academy, Marist, Fenwick, Mother Guerin and De La Salle have all gone co-ed, or, in some cases, a variation thereof. The only school that I'm aware of that went coed before Ignatius was Nazareth Academy in Lagrange Park.
While Fr. Bowen appointed an advisory committee to debate the issue, he was the one that made the final decision. My concern was that we might announce that we were accepting girls, only to have no girls show up. As it turned out that was not the case. In fact, what surprised me was that several alumni, who expressed their opposition to the move, sent their daughters to SICP when the decision was finalized.
I wasn't sure what adjustments I might have to make with girls present. While I had attended a coed Chicago Public High School, Senn, my high school teaching experience was 19 years in an all-boys school. It turned out not to be difficult at all. I think that one advantage was that I had three daughters, two of whom were close to entering high school.
Within the faculty, there was a large increase in women teachers...5 in 1978, 14 in 1979. This change occurred in the midst of the "women's rights" movement, and I found myself in uncomfortable conversations with some female teachers. Things like why the Ladies' washrooms should say, "Women", because "Ladys was "condescending" and "pejorative", or that boys were more aggressive than girls because our culture demanded that boys be given toy guns and girls be given dolls. I won’t even mention the “dust up” over the fact that the Lords’ Prayer starts, “Our Father...”.
Honestly, I felt good about the change, and now it's not even an issue. I did have to slightly adjust my methods of discipline. Boys will react differently to certain disciplinary methods when in the presence of female peers than when in the presence of only boys. I don’t know what disciplinary approach was in an all-girls schools, but I learned to adjust when girls/women/ladies arrived. (For the record, by 1979 “hitting” or any form of physical contact, boys or girls, was no longer acceptable, and I know, as a father, I would not have wanted my girls touched as a form of punishment...especially by a man.)
There were other changes as a result of going coed. Washrooms had to be added and modified, and the gym locker room had to be divided.
One all-girls school, which closed soon after 1979, blamed their closure on Ignatius going coed, but that doesn’t explain why girls schools like Regina and Trinity have flourished after their so-called brother schools accepted girls. Did going coed save Ignatius? My assessment is, “No!” I think Ignatius was well on its way to recovery following the difficulties of the mid-70's, but there's no denying that it speeded the recovery.
More on this subject later.
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