A driving force in the single-sex education movement is recent research showing natural differences in how males and females learn. –article
When putting a child through school, most parents want nothing more than for their kid to be able to learn successfully and to be prepared for the world beyond the classroom. They want the best possible learning environment available. They want their child to feel comfortable in this environment as well. But, in the end, they should be prepared for life after the classroom door. There are some major debates as to how this can most effectively be accomplished. Among them is the topic of single-sex education; boys and girls are taught separately in the education system. While I do understand that there are pros and cons to both aspects of this decision for education, I know that interacting with the opposite sex is almost a guaranteed part of life and that to live successfully after school, cooperation will be required.
Those in favor of single-sex education believe that “offering single-sex classrooms in public schools is the cheapest, most effective, and simplest ‘innovation’ available to improve achievement”, according to Robert Kirschenbaum, a school psychologist with the Clover Park School District in Lakewood, Washington from this article. It is also said that, “single-sex education enhances student success when teachers use techniques geared toward the gender of their students.” While it has been found that members of the opposite sex have an ability to distract each other in an educational setting, and thus take away from the learning aspects, but to make education single-sex would take away an important part of the learning environment. Males and females have a tendency to look at the world from different perspectives. Is not learning about different peoples perspectives and interests a huge part of learning? If we take away this experience then we take away a key part of education. There is also the fact that teachers are most commonly not taught how to gear their curriculum to a specific gender. Not only that, but those within a gender are capable of being very different as well, leading to a need for varying teaching styles.
André Boyd, a teacher at Johnson Middle School in Timmonsville, South Carolina, from this article, said, “In the classroom, learning experiences need to resemble real-world life experiences. How can we prepare students for future families, homes, and workplaces without exposing them to members of the opposite sex? How can we expect them to learn to respect and appreciate gender differences as adults if we do not teach them to form healthy relationships and have positive interactions and appropriate dialogues now?”
Students in single-sex classrooms will one day work side-by-side with members of the opposite sex. Educating students in single-sex schools limits their opportunity to work cooperatively and co-exist successfully with members of the opposite sex. -Kristen Stanberry (greatschools.org)
Life is full of interactions with other people. We as human beings actually require it. If we do not learn how to interact with our own peers, including those of a different gender, the world will be that much harder to get along in. Take for instance a student who went to a single-sex high school. They spent several years learning and interacting with only members of their own gender. Upon graduation, they attend a co-ed college and things are much different than they are used to. This student may have to deal with things like co-ed dorm life, which could be awkward at best if they do not know how to approach having a social interaction with a member of the opposite sex, let alone living 24/7 in the same environment. They will have classes with the opposite sex, which can be very different because the point of view may be very different than what they had heard for years. The same can be said of a single-sex college when a student graduates and has to go out and get a job. There are very few working environments with only one gender.
Education is one of those situations in which preference plays a large part. Parents and the student may find that they prefer single-sex educational situations and others may not. However, I believe that one should not take the different perspectives and human interactions life can give us for granted, and the opposite sex plays a very large part in that.
Articles available within the text:
http://www.nea.org/home/17276.htm
As everyone else has commented, I am in total agreement that same-sex education is simply detrimental to students. I came from a co-ed school, and a majority of my experiences were based off of interactions with both genders, so it’s hard for me to even imagine having gone to a school with only girls. Adding on to that idea, it would be a tremendous challenge to adjust to a life at Penn State after having attended an all-girl school. PSU is dominated by more male students than female, so to me, it would feel like an overwhelming influx of testosterone that I had never before experienced. I’m in complete agreement that same-sex education does more harm than good in any aspect of an individual’s life, from school to social interactions to the work force and beyond.
(Great blog!!)
Hey Maria!
I also have no experience with same sex education. After reading my peers comments I must say that I agree with them. Same sex education does seem to more detrimental to the education system than beneficial. I fail to see how this “distraction” is the diving force behind the issue. In all the schools I have attended the largest distraction for me was always my female friends, not my male ones. I also believe that learning how to interact with the opposite gender is one of the best advantages that the regular classroom provides. If students are only allowed to interact with the same sex then how are they supposed to know how to interact with the opposite sex in the future when they have to work with them. Relationships can me much more difficult in the working arena and if that is some of the first interactions students are getting things will get really complicated.
Overall great blog!
Maria,
Hi! Single sex education is something that I personally have no experience with- my whole life I have been educated in a co-ed learning environment. Because of my lack of personal experience/need to think about this sector of education in my own life, I found your article very interesting and eye-opening.
What I have heard when hearing things about single-sex education revolves mainly around one main ‘benefit’ that you draw attention to briefly. This often argued ‘pro’ of single-sex education being that single-sex education helps students not be distracted by members of the other sex and sometimes happens. Like you state in your article, many believe that “members of the opposite sex have an ability to distract each other in an educational setting, and thus take away from the learning aspects,” (Fleck, Maria). While I feel that this point of debate is important to mention, if for no other reason than its prominence in society, personally I have a large disagreement with the reasoning used to create the ideology. The thought that single-sex education is beneficial because it removes the ‘distraction factor’ of the opposite sex from a student’s educational environment, lacks a lens of intersectionality. This view assumes the position that all students are heterosexual and gendered in the first place, not giving credence to students that identify as agender, gender fluid, homosexual, bisexual and or asexual. About 4% of the Unted States population overall falls in the LGBT category, with a higher percentage of children under the age of 18 identifying as LGBT as well.1 Because we know that hetero-abnormative students exists, the argument that same sex only education takes away sexual distraction between students, while often discussed- is deeply problematic.
While I think that you did a great job in discussing the many potential and real-life applicable benefits of co-ed education, I would like to finish my response thinking and diving more deeply into where more ‘intersectionally-friendly’, yet still critical, views of co-ed education come from. What are other reason people argue against co-ed student environments? In some cases, it mat be a real religious preference. For example, single-sex educational systems are much more popular in the Catholic jurisdiction of schooling when looked at in comparison to other educational and public schooling groups. Sometimes, in schools derived from principles of other cultures, single-sex education is also the traditional norm, “In many of countries, most public schools are segregated by sex,”2. While these distinctions are real and important, I find it more interesting overall the seemingly overwhelming benefits of co-ed education and hope that each side will soon be able to look more objectively at each other- just as you do so well in your article. Thank you for your time, Rebecca.
1.) http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Gates-How-Many-People-LGBT-Apr-2011.pdf
2.) http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/singleeduc.pdf
I sincerely think that single sex education is detrimental to the students who would have to learn in that type of environment. I believe that it would largely hinder their abilities to work and interact with those of the opposite sex immediately upon their exit of the single sex educational system which could be carried over into their interactions later in life. In addition, I find the argument that the opposite sex is distracting within an educational system, while perhaps true in some instances, is largely a non-issue as those who are truly invested in their education will not be so easily distracted and those who are using this reasoning are often just looking for an excuse not to pay attention, an excuse which can and would take any form available to them at the time. Also, competition amongst those of the same sex can often be just as, if not more, “distracting” to the educational environment than distractions based on those of the opposite sex.
Not only is it important for students to be able to learn how to interact with their peers, no matter their gender, at an early age, but it is also important that we teach the younger generations that we are all humans and that gender is not to hold sway upon how each individual is viewed, for their gender does not define who they are or what they are capable of accomplishing and I believe that creating such a stark contrast between males and females within an environment which has such a large impact upon the way in which we view and interact with the world around would not have beneficial effects upon the future generations which would grow up in this separated atmosphere.
Learning how to be creative, caring, and effective members of society should be the number one goal for our educational system, while continuing to teaching students that which they will need to carry with them throughout their lives, and what better way to do this than to expose our student to the variety of viewpoints available within a co-ed atmosphere rather than being shoehorned into a particular way of thinking merely because they had not had the opportunity to be exposed to others. There is really nothing within our educational system, or in the world at large, from which students would benefit from being taught separately, nor is there anything which men and women are not capable of doing within a professional or daily life atmosphere. Within our ever increasingly global atmosphere, women especially are being expected to be able to do everything a man can do (which we absolutely can), if not more, in order to continue to be competitive within the global job market; and so it would be absurd to expect them to receive a different and separated education than that of the males who they will be expected to compete with.
In addition, this article from the Green Garage blog mentions a pro of single gender classrooms as, “Educators can design their teaching style according to gender: Advocates say that single gender classrooms make it easier for teachers to prepare gender-specific lessons for students. According to studies, boys and girls have different preferences when it comes to learning behaviors. Males are usually more on physical activities while females prefer more interaction with their peers. With this observation in mind, supporters of single gender classrooms say that educators can adjust their teaching style according to gender.”. Frankly, I find this “pro” to be ridiculous as we can all benefit from engaging in opportunities and activities which we might or might not be originally predisposed towards. It would certainly not hurt girls to become more interested in participating in more physical activities, nor boys to interact on a more close basis with their peers. Not only would it not hurt, but this is certainly not true. There are plenty of girls who are interested in physical activities and boys who enjoy interacting with their peers, and it is these outdated gender stereotypes which prevent us from moving forward in our societies and ridding ourselves of these self-imposed limitations once and for all.
Article Mentioned: http://greengarageblog.org/10-biggest-pros-and-cons-of-single-gender-classrooms
I believe this is similar to a topic that came up in my hometown a few years ago regarding whether or not we should segregate classes by race, Personally I think both of these decisions are extremely regressive. The United States has too much history regarding the need for equal rights between races, and genders. Allowing for people to have single sex education is ultimately a choice, yet like it was stated, there is no way that a man or a woman is never going to have to work with one another in a professional context. I think that if we were to eliminate or even put a larger emphasis on same-sex rather than co-ed education, we would be doing a greater disservice to companies and to our country as a whole.
While it is considered a “distraction” to have both male and females in a classroom, this causes another issue to come about. In the portion of this entry regarding teenage rebellion. “Stopping systems within the brain make adolescents more susceptible to engaging in risky or dangerous behavior” while this has been originally intended to explain upon the inefficiency of antidrug and safe-sex programs, this can also be extended towards the gender issue revolving around education. If you were to try and implicate a same sex education widely throughout America, rather than making it an option to send students to private schools that specialize in same sex education, it would cause for youth as a whole to try and make more of a distraction. If you forbid something to adolescents, especially in a society where social media and the internet rule the lives of most teenagers, there’s a good chance they’ll just do it anyway.
It’s important to note that in the United States solely, women and men were educated separately due to the belief that women should uphold more domestic duties while men were to be the breadwinners and more educated of the two genders. As someone who identifies as a feminist, when co-education was implemented, this allowed for the two genders to begin their long journey towards understanding and respecting one another. As we can see in the year 2016, men and women are still treated fairly unequal, whether it’s the male only Navy SEALS, or the fact that abortion is still being debated upon. While it shold be an option, I think as a whole it should be done away with. I have met people in my first year of college who have only went to school with boys, and unfortunately whether do to their high school educators or their families, the belief that women are inferior to men still remains. Like we did away with racial segregations in schools, doing so with same sex education will only push the United States to further cause genders to treat one another equally.
Overall, I think this is an interesting topic, like you said, we should not take these gender interactions for granted. Great job!
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Ch-Co/Coeducation-and-Same-Sex-Schooling.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_rebellion