Bill Gallagher
Teacher, Coach, Parent

There are two stories that come immediately to my mind when coeducation at Penn Charter is mentioned. The first is when I was told by some OPC's that going coed is going to ruin the athletic program at Penn Charter! That the winning days are over! Well, not only have the boys continued to have strong teams and win Championships, the girls' teams have added to the number of wins. Thanks to the strong leadership of Jane Diamond and Debbie White and the performances of our female athletes, Penn Charter remains the ideal place for student-athletes, male and female, to prepare for college.

The other story involves the years of preparation leading up to the enrollment of the girls into the middle and upper schools. Not only were there many physical plant adjustments needed, there also were other aspects of education that had to be addressed. One such area was the topic of an evening faculty meeting. The topic was Sexism in our Textbooks. During a break in the meeting, I bumped into a friend at the hallway water fountain. This friend asked what we were doing at school so late. I explained that we were meeting to discuss sexism in our textbooks. He said he didn't understand and asked for an example. I told him that we just found a sentence in an American History text that read “...and the pioneers gathered their wives and children and headed westward.” My friend thought for a moment and responded, “What the heck were they suppose to do, leave them home?”