We've been debating single sex schools elsewhere, and read this opinion piece on Friday.

We keep throwing stuff against the educational wall to see what sticks, when what is truly needed are more teachers and smaller class sizes. With smaller classes, teachers have more time to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each child, what motivates them and what does not.

As someone born with a physical birth defect related to gender, placement in the wrong school in such a format would have terrified me. In fact it might well have caused permanent trauma.

If parent and child wish to attend a single sex school, private schools exist. Public schools have no business adopting such a format.

nelle

It's been historically, but much less currently, common in Catholic secondary education. The Catholic part didn't bother me, even though I don't practice now (I'm a rare lapsed person with no church hatred, and I really despise the whole "I'm so guilty, I was raised Catholic" cliche, because not all of us feel that way) but the all-girls part did.

I just think it's unnecessary. Was it terrible to be around all girls, all day long? No. I did my work and participated in extracurricular activities - NHS, drama, student government, blahblahblah - just like most high school students. But what I didn't consciously understand at the time was that I really needed to learn how to interact with boys socially as an adolescent and teenager, and not having this experience in high school just prolonged the developmental curve. I caught up, but it would have been just as well if it had happened earlier. Some of my very best friends are men. Who knows who I missed out on in high school, when all of my classmates were girls and I was too shy to engage in any of the activities with our "brother schools"?

The all-girls thing also made boys seem MUCH more mystical than they are. ;)

Laurie
LaurieWrites

I attended Wellesley College which is a women's college. I know that the studies for girls schools and women's colleges are separate I really enjoyed going to a women's college and if I had a daughter I would urge her to consider it. A few years after college, I did a post-BA program at a co-ed college. Honestly by the time I was into my second year, biochemistry etc, I would forget that I wasn't at a women's college because there were so many more women than men. When I was applying to vet school, I was even asked in the interview how I felt about the fact that their school was primarily women. I know at the time, med school was 50/50. This idea that women are dumber is just so completely ridiculous. If that's the case, why are women doing so well in science not to mention other fields?

As a feminist with a major in women's studies, I honestly felt that boys and girls were identical. Any differences, other physical, were the result of society. In fact, I maintained this view until my older son was about a year. I have two boys. We live in a house that's filled with My Little Pony and Groovy Girl dolls. My boys don't like to wrestle, shove, etc. They're not really into cars. Really they just like playing with their dolls and stuffed animals However, they do seem to need to run around lot just like the stereotypical image of boys in our society.

Since I've become a mom of two boys, various relatives and friends email articles about how poorly boys are doing in school. They all say that the grammar schools are now too girl focused and the boys can't do well in them. These articles stress that because of this, we're seeing what I saw in my post-BA program which is less men in the sciences. These people expect me to jump on the bandwagon since I have only sons and demand boy focused education.

This always infuriates me because I don't understand why it has to be either/or. Usually the boys education articles focus issues like the need for less stories about cute furry animals and for recess. Yes, as the mom of two boys who like to run around a lot I do agree with that. I also believe it would benefit girls as well regardless of whether or not they traditionally are as hyper as the stereotypical boy. Is there a drawback to having recess? Is there really any reason not to? Is there any reason why it's not important for girls to have recess? I know the education is expensive and every time a new program is implemented it costs money. However, I just don't understand why it has to be extreme; why it can't allow for different ways of learning. I grew up in the same town as Suzanne. My experience with boys and girls being treating equally was the same as hers. I also remember learning concepts being explained several different ways. I don't understand why this is such a novel concept. People learn all different ways regardless of whether they're male or female. Why are we not encouraging different types of learning simply because we all learn differently?
Alex Elliot, Formula Fed and Flexible Parenting

Yeah, too early to have read that Wash Post piece you mentioned. Although boiling blood does put a spring in my step and make it a little easier to get up and make coffee.

What a load of crap.

Even if everything she says is true, it ignores the REALITY that we all think and excell differently and when those differences are brought together, we create something better than the sum of it's parts. I know, for instance, that my business partner is a tech guy who is a whiz with algorythms and other number oriented things that baffle me. But i'm a whiz at strategy and product design.... We need both to build a company. NEXT.

As for single sex education, that's a different issue. I'm not opposed (though i am opposed to public schools going it, segregation is segregation no matter how you justify it.)

Personally, I was sooooooo boy crazy when i was younger that removing boys from my sight line would have helped me out a lot. (Come to think of it, I'm not sure that's changed.) But that's a case by case thing. People just learn differently and we need access to educational environments that speak to those differences.

(Oh, I dunno. Maybe I do wish there was a way for public schools to create specialty schools that enable artists to learn through art, scientists to learn through... you know.)

I always return to the theory of Multiple Intelligences. There is no ONE way to define "smart.' And certainly not to define "successful." Nonsense like this doesn't help.
___________
Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
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This isn't news. People have been talking about separating boys and girls for YEARS. Being an Old Girl (yes, we use that term rather than Alumna, and guess what? WE LIKE IT!) of a girls' school, I really feel that I was at an advantage when I arrived at my co-ed university. I spoke out more in class (to the point that profs had to tell me to allow other students to participate) and really didn't care that I was being a bitch at times (while girls from co-ed schools were more likely to worry)...In high school, many of my classmates took two senior level math and/or "hard science" courses, while my friends from co-ed schools were less likely to do so. I think having gone to an all girls' school has made me a more confident woman.

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Between the Charlotte Allen piece and then one from Linda Hirshman pitying us lesser women than her for being "fickle," I thought I was reading something from hte uber-conservatives.

But what do I know -- I'm just a woman! ;)

PunditMom
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