Jezebel
There's a public school in Alabama where little girls and boys are separated. The girls' classroom walls are yellow, the boys' blue. The girls' room temperature is kept at 75, the boys' at 69. The girls do a "tidy" science experiment with blue and red colored oil and water; the boys watch snakes eat rats. Should boys and girls be taught separately? wonders the Times Magazine writer observing all this. I've always thought "yes" on the basis that I spent most of my time in high school reapplying mascara, plotting the reapplication of mascara and withholding food to attract the attention of boys who I would never (in a million beers!) fuck today. School was just boring, besides this one AP class I had that happened to contain no boys (save for one who was clearly an affirmative action case.) But the case for single-sex education is wayyyy more fraught and elaborate than that, according to Leonard Sax, a family psychologist converted to the cause when a 12-year-old patient started suddenly getting good grades. The boy's mom said she'd simply taken him off the ADD meds and enrolled him in boy's school. "With all due respect, I regard single-sex education as an antiquated relic of the Victorian era," Sax said to her.
"With all due respect," the mom replied, "Fuck yourself."
Okay, not really; she said something maybe slightly more polite, but it was that sort of typical male-female exchange that prompted Sax to do that thing where a dude throws all his assumptions into the air, replaces them with a bold new age-old assumption and dives headfirst into a brand new worldview with the help of a few supporting theories, promising studies and convincing anecdotes. The story focuses on his conversion and ideas in a cover story on the rise of the single-sex education movement, which has over the past ten years yielded 45 single-sex public schools and hundreds of schools offering single-sex classes.
Sax thinks there are vast differences in the ways that boys and girls learn. Baby boys look at mobiles; girls look at stationary pictures. Boys draw pictures depicting action, girls draw pictures depicting nuance and detail and color. Girls' brains develop earlier, with with their cerebral volume peaking at 10.5 while boys peak four years later. Girls hear and smell slightly better than boys, who don't like school because it's taught "by soft-spoken women who bore," according to Sax.
Sax: gets accused of sexism and molding the facts that support his thesis; relishes that. Sax has never been a teacher.
The ACLU and such people believe single-sex education is undemocratic. "Even if one could prove that sending a kid off to his or her own school based on religion or race or ethnicity or gender did a little better job of raising the academic skills for workers in the economy, there's also the issue of trying to create tolerant citizens in a democracy," says Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation.
Richard Kahlenberg has also never been a teacher. This is the last sentence of the story. Has Richard Kahlenberg ever been inside a public school?
And then there is Emily Wylie. Emily teaches at an all-girl's school in East Harlem. She is an advocate for same-sex education as well, in large part because she appreciates the desexualized environment: "Sure, when they take pictures, they often present their backsides first. But I think I'm giving girls a better education than I could have if there were guys in the room. " "It's my subversive mission to create all these strong girls who will then go out into the world and be astonished when people try to oppress them."
So one day they can go self-confidently out into the world and spar with the likes of men like Sax, who will in turn be so bowled over by the elegant simplicty of their logic as to take up their causes with messianic zeal for themselves, fighting wars to defend their pragmatic notions, for which they can then take all the credit in the New York Times Magazine because that is the way the world works. But at least they will probably stop bothering to check their mascara first.
Teaching Boys And Girls Separately [NY Times]
Comments
hmmmm. Anybody out there have first person experiences to add?
They better keep an eye on the girl in second row from the top, second from left. She's clearly plotting her revenge.
My worry is, if the girls don't learn how to quietly be degraded and harassed by boys now, when will they? College?
Man, I read that, and I really hoped the mom had said what y'all wrote she said: "Fuck you."
Half of my motivation in high school was checking the hotties - I'm not going to lie. And that includes impressing them with my smarts.
But then again, 75 degree classrooms sounds pretty tempting.
nooooooooooooooo i would have 0 friends if they got rid of teh femalez and had all guys *sob*
@nodoubt9203: btw i went to an all-boys high school and it was HELLLLLLLLLLL
Eh, I went to an all girl college my first year of school and hated it. The dialogue wasn't there. My mother went to an all girl hs, didn't make her feel smarter or the girls primp less.
I went to an all girls school and I loved it. Nobody ever had to bother shaving their legs and wasting time to look good for the boys in class and everyone could just concentrate on the task at hand.
I went to an all-boys military high school, and I did do much better grade-wise than my brief spell in public school. However, I'm not sure I can credit that to the same-sex environment, or because answering a question wrong resulted in push-ups.
what an adorable class picture though!
I remember when I was in ed school that the research seemed to support the idea that it was good for girls to be separate...but for boys, there wasn't a benefit. (I was in ed school in '99...anyone have anything more recent to add?)
By the time I got to high school, most of my classes were single sex because there were no boys in AP English or Civics.
Also, I went to middle school with a girl named Emily Wylie. I really, really hope this is the same woman.
The kids will just ask for the bathroom pass to meet up and makeout in the janitor's closet.
i wouldn't change a thing about going to an all girls' catholic highschool. sure, the nuns were fridgid bitches and pubescent girls can be nasty at times, but i actually spent time doing my work and not waiting for the guy in chemistry to notice me.
and trust me, we dealt with the opposite sex. if anything this environment made us even hornier come friday night.
Yellow rooms vs. blue rooms? Oil and water vs. rats and snakes? If that's what single sex education boils down to then FUCK DAT!
I hated school because I was bored to death, but I excelled anyway. It's called discipline.
I went to an all-girls college and loved it. I felt like I was able to find my voice without being judged all the time. That could have just been me maturing, though.
@TaraIncognita: i just got out, pretty recent yes?
I had a single sex class and lemme tell you it was a catty bitchfest the entire year. Women will tear each other down just as hard as any guy telling you that you're fugly.
It seems that the test cases always show the same thing: boys and girls learn differently, and therefore should be taught separately. My friends who are teachers confirm this theory.
Besides, boys are gross and stupid. Duh.
All I have to say is that sitting all day in a 75-degree room sounds like hell.
I have a theory that will surely blow people's minds: Perhaps everyone learns differently!?!?! Maybe some girls and boys learn more in a single sex environment and maybe some are better off in co-ed. Surely it would be crazy to judge students on an individual basis rather than lump them into generalizations.
I would hate the higher temps and lack of snakes myself - but never would have missed the boys. In fact, I wouldn't have missed the girls either.
Tough one. I can definitely see that this would benefit some students, but I'm not sure it's as simple as "boys learn this way" and "girls learn that way." My spatial reasoning is very good, and Proust makes me snore. Colored oil and water sounds BORING. I'd rather be a Boy Scout than a Girl Scout. I think some kids get short-changed in a single sex learning environment too. Plus, if the class teaches to the stereotypes, then you'll end up like the Simpsons episode where, in an effort to learn in different way, Lisa had to go all Victor/Victoria.
Stuff likes this just makes me wonder if I'm going to have to home school...
@RyanB: See, I'd want to be in the 69-degree room. I'd be burning up in the 75-degree one...well maybe not burning up, but I wouldn't be comfy. I like it cold.
Although not as cold as my brother, who kept his room so arctic my parents used to joke about curing meat in there.
I went to a co-ed grade school, an all girl high school and a co-ed college. I honestly think it depends on the kid.
There are pluses and minuses to both. I think you can't really tell what will work until you see the kid in action to figure out how distracted they actually are.
I do think that little kids should be together though--just developmentally I think they need to learn to get along with everyone. Makes the most sense to split in high school if that's important to you.
I could see some benefits for this, but I would be thoroughly pissed off if I didn't get to see some snake-eating-rat action. I am a subscriber to Boring Nerd Girl Quarterly and love me some bio-drama.
@AthertonMerriweather: Ha!
Also, I always thought that school that had the basic classes gender separated (math, science, etc.) and the elective classes (say, speech, psychology, of Victorian literature) can be coeducational. It really does help kids study when they're in classes of the same gender. At least girls, from a study I've read, I'm not sure if boys do any better.
Also, I'm from AL. Where is this school?
This gets filed in the exceedingly large cluster of mind grapes labeled "Everyone's Different, Let's Not Pretend to Know What's Best for All". I'll deal with it when / if I ever have a mini Tete to care for.
A handful of girls I know went to the same all girls' school from kindergarten to their final year of high school and transitioned to a co-ed university just fine. Personally, I'd want my kids, should I have any, to go to a co-ed school for the elementary grades before going to a single-sex school for middle and high school (although they do say that boys function better in a single sex environment in earlier grades).
I went to an all girls' school for high school and while we didn't feel that we needed to primp for class to attract the boys, we were definitely just as boy-crazy as the girls in co-ed schools. Going to a girls' school didn't stop us from putting pics of boyfriends and celeb crushes in our lockers! hehehe...we did, however, learn to be more confident (and have a love of hard math...most of us took at least two "hard" math courses our senior year)in general than girls who came from co-ed high schools. Once we got to university, we were more likely to speak in class, and didn't care what the guys thought of us! I was so outspoken and participated so often in certain classes that I had professors tell me to shut up (in the form of "please allow other students to participate")
@kungfutoday: Yeah, I sort of have a problem with this whole teaching each other different thing. I think it's condescending. I'm not 100% sure, but I would be willing to bet good money that the way they ran classes at my school wasn't very different from the way they ran classes at the all boy school that was near us.
I think one is better than the other solely on the basis of creating a comfortable environment, not in the boys play with war and girls play with dolls to learn kinda bullshit.
I'm torn on this debate. On one hand, I think men and women need to learn together. On the other, I think same-sex education is a fantastic idea. My heart breaks a little whenever I hear about a women's college going co-ed (recent example: Wells.) I look back on all my women's studies classes in college, and with the exception of two of the classes, women were the only students there. And it was the best learning experience of my life. Too many women come from public schools where they're afraid to speak up (note: I was not one of these women) because of the boys in the class. And most of them bring this trait into college with them, and I think they miss out.
@PetiteGal: are you me?
I attended an all-women's college and cannot stress how much I appreciate the experience. I also was an elementary school teacher and eye witness to the tom-foolery both sexes do to gain each other's attention. With that said, a single sex education can be very helpful for a few years but not all the way through primary because co-ed has its place to maintain academic standards. Personally, I'd much prefer seeing a snake eat a mouse over mixing red and blue dye as a science experiment.
@so5minutesago: Yeah I loved my women's college experience too, though I'd had co-ed the whole way through high school (which is actually not that common in Ireland; most of my friends went to single-sex high schools and were hardly scarred for it).
My huge problem with this article was all the Sax crap. There are good social reasons for single-sex education but I can't buy this yellow-wall bollocks. Different people learn differently in a general sense; there might be some elements of common ground between most girls and most boys, but that hardly covers everyone.
I think single-sex works better for girls than boys, if my purely personal bias against dating dudes who went to all-boys schools is accurate. I nailed a couple of guys who were taught by the Jesuits, and if there are more patronizing people out there, I hope not to encounter them.
@GoldHoops: They probably also buy the girl classrooms the dollhouse that applauds you for putting baby to bed the right way.
God no. I think an all girl school would result in a bunch of Regina Kings.
I hang with dudes because I don't care for the female bullshit.
My problem is just with the sexism in the set up -- different colored walls, girly science experiments. Please, it's just conditioning girls to behave a certain way and that is disturbing.
"desexualizes the environment" huh? I guess these people never heard of that whole same sex attraction thingie-do.
Also it was really awesome to go to school with boys and beat them at everything IMO.
I want to know what school this is.
@Lady Skittlehattington: Hahaha, I love you.
I reckon it would help to read the article. Duh, me. This school is on the total opposite end of the state from me.
The problem is, separate is not equal, and the second it comes down to between the boys and the girls in terms of money guess who's going to lose? Exactly.
And while yes, the patriarchy does tell you your job is to look good for boys, it's ultimately your decision to apply mascara rather than learn about the fall of the Roman Empire.
@TaraIncognita: I read the same thing. Recent grad from '07.
This will just make everyone GAY GAY GAY!!!
What about people who would feel much better being with the other gender? Or a gay boy who feels incredibly uncomfortable surrounded by all males and would feel as though it's a hostile environment?
I can see both sides of this, but I wonder if segregation is EVER a better idea. Do blacks learn better when they're with other blacks? Some probably do. Does that mean segregating schools was a good thing?
I went to an all-girls high school
pros:
grooming is not important
you can stand in the middle of the hallways and shout "anybody got a tampon??"
the drama and bitchiness that occurs when guys and girls mingle doesn't take place during school
cons:
400 menstrual cycles all get in synch
everyone gets hypercompetitive about everything, from grades to the small population of boys who commonly associate with the school
bitchery, everywhere
I hated it, personally, but I can see how some people would like it.
I went to a women's college after 13 years of co-ed public schools, and it was an incredible gift of an experience. The main complaints (there isn't any dialogue, it doesn't prepare you to deal with men as an adult, I have more male friends than female friends) simply don't hold up once you get past the surface, if you're open to the experience. I agree that it's not right for everyone across the board, but for me--I learned to make female friends, who continue to be like family to me, I learned that the most important factor in dealing with men in a professional setting in having faith and confidence in yourself which my college did everything to give me, and as to the "dialogue"--how many middle-school to college-aged boys have you ever met that ever had a contribution that was worth a damn? We had access to co-ed classe