Grace Wheeler
Overseer

One of the great things about PC’s road to coeducation was the good will among Overseers. We weren’t exactly looking for the challenge of the decision and its implications. In hindsight, it may seem strange to have had women on the board - and even one following the other as clerk - of such a well-known all-boys school without a great push for coeducation. But we really had enough on the agenda, with me as a new clerk in 1975 and the search for and installation of a new head in 1976. However, Peter Benoliel, clerk of the Long-Range Planning Committee, insisted we had to resolve the issue, one way or the other. So taking a deep collective breath, we plunged in.

Richard Brown clerked the Coeducation Study Committee, joined by Ralph Hirshorn for the alumni, Norma Mercer for the Community, Marilyn Geary and Albert Linton for the Faculty. They talked to everyone, surveyed all constituencies, had us visiting other schools, combing the literature, interviewing experts.

No one could give us a definitive answer as to which was “best”. The schools which had embraced coeducation felt strengthened and enriched. Dr. Marvin Bressler at Princeton believed women “elevated the general level of competence”. Dr. Sutton-Smith, a developmental psychologist at Penn, reported there was no objective data on the subject but his personal opinion was that if men and women were to work together, they should get to know each other early. The Committee recommended coeducation, and once again, the question was up to Overseers.

Overseers had long and tiring meetings, as each sought sincerely to find the right direction for this much-loved school. Penn’s charter and historic Quaker attitudes tilted toward coeducation. But for a long time the best schools and colleges in the nation were single-sex, and had educated several of our Overseers. Now many of these best schools were co-ed, and so it was that those among us were eventually persuaded to do what Penn had charged us to do, to educate male and female, rich and poor children.

We made the decision without full conviction. Without the good will and trust among Overseers, the decision could have resulted in some tough years for the school. As it was, everyone responded with enthusiasm and put forth their best efforts to make coeducation become the happy reality it is.