False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method of "coeducation." This too, by many of its supporters, is founded upon naturalism and the denial of original sin; but by all, upon a deplorable confusion of ideas that mistakes a leveling promiscuity and equality, for the legitimate association of the sexes. The Creator has ordained and disposed perfect union of the sexes only in matrimony, and, with varying degrees of contact, in the family and in society. Besides there is not in nature itself, which fashions the two quite different in organism, in temperament, in abilities, anything to suggest that there can be or ought to be promiscuity, and much less equality, in the training of the two sexes. These, in keeping with the wonderful designs of the Creator, are destined to complement each other in the family and in society, precisely because of their differences, which therefore ought to be maintained and encouraged during their years of formation, with the necessary distinction and corresponding separation, according to age and circumstances. These principles, with due regard to time and place, must, in accordance with Christian prudence, be applied to all schools, particularly in the most delicate and decisive period of formation, that, namely, of adolescence; and in gymnastic exercises and deportment, special care must be had of Christian modesty in young women and girls, which is so gravely impaired by any kind of exhibition in public.
This is clearly not being observed by "orthodox" Catholic colleges and universities such as Steubenville, Christendom, Thomas Aquinas College, Wyoming Catholic College, Benedictine College, or Ave Maria University (and so on). Older Catholic universities succumbed to the trend initiated by secular or Protestants schools of becoming co-ed a while ago.
Who takes this seriously? Perhaps those schools affiliated with the SSPX, and certain Catholic schools that are not operated through the diocese. Schools run by Opus Dei are also single-sex; those run by the Legionaries admit both boys and girls, but the classrooms are single-sex after a certain grade. I believe all of Opus Dei's schools are at the secondary level, none are at the primary level. However, I believe its colleges and universities are coeducational, as is the case with the Pontifical Universities in Rome.
Coeducation seems to be wrong at least at the secondary level, if we understand that to refer to grades 7 to 12. I remember how distracting girls could be in 5th grade, and there were classmates who had "boyfriends" and "girlfriends" so early. Also, competition and casual familiarity between boys and girls reinforces feminist dogma about gender being a social construct, the destruction of femininity, and conflict between the sexes. (Schools are used increasingly to emasculate young boys as well.) It seems then this should be applied at the primary level as well.
What, then, of the college or university level? Since "raging hormones" do not disappear after one graduates from high school, coeducation should be banned there as well. Supporters might argue that through self-discipline and the help of grace, the distraction of the opposite sex, as well as the temptation to sexual sins, might be lessened, but that misses the other point of Pius XI's instruction, which is concerned with the sort of education that is to be provided to young men and women. Since men and women are not the same, the sort of education they should receive is not the same either. His stricture is not merely prudential, taking cognizance of what happens when young men and women have prolonged contact with one another, but is also about pedagogy, and what is appropriate for men and women.
I do think that much of university education should be done during the teen years as well, so that concerns of "delaying social contact with the opposite sex and opportunities for dating/courtship" could be addressed if colleges and universities (particularly Catholic institutions) got out of the business of offering a remedial education to those who had completed high school, and started replacing high schools instead.
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