SAME-OLD SAME-SEX

You would think, given my demographic and political leanings (woman in her 50s who thinks that, on the balance, it’s good that the ACLU exists), I would not be a fan of single-sex education. But you would be wrong. My sole first-hand experience with one-gender education was a very good one, although not for the same reasons most proponents of same-gender schools cite.

When my 8^th grade daughter (then in a public middle school) started lobbying us to attend an all-girls Catholic high school, I was not in favor of the idea. I believed that kids needed to learn and socialize with both genders and that dividing boys and girls might reinforce gender stereotypes.

The school she wanted to attend, a competitive-admission college preparatory academy, had a solid academic reputation—but I was suspicious of my barely adolescent girl’s claim that she was seeking rigorous scholarly challenges. Like many 8^th grade girls, she was half-into the idea (if not the reality) of having a boyfriend, too—so her earnest desire to attend an all-girls school mystified me. On the theory that some girls rebel by piercing something, but our daughter was rebelling by demanding an all-girls Catholic education, we counted our blessings and said yes. 

And it turned out well—but not because our daughter’s school was superior to the co-ed public high school. The things that make schools good—quality teaching, engaging and innovative curriculum, personal attention, high expectations—were just as likely to be found at the public school, less than a mile from home. We know this, because her younger brother (whose deepest fear in middle school was that we’d force him into an all-boys Catholic school) attended this high school. And also did well.

My daughter’s high school experience wasn’t driven by any special application of “brain-based” learning theory. A lot of what is written about what boys and girls “need” to thrive in the classroom is, in my opinion, hooey. Schools that paint girl-classrooms yellow, or give boys 5 extra minutes of run-around time at recess in the fond hope that achievement data will shoot up, are playing a silly game. This conflation of gender stereotypes and bogus instructional strategies hit a low point in an article in the London Times Online this week, an amazing collection of hokey nostrums and ill-researched prescriptions for adjusting education to benefit boys and girls—“it is a biological necessity that boys run about, take risks, swing off things and compete with each other to develop properly” because if not, they will “get into trouble and tumble into a cycle of school failure.”  

I taught school too long to have any illusions that boys and girls are the same. I only need think of my middle school percussion sections—13-year old boys with sticks, mostly—and compare them to the flute players to draw some pretty real gender distinctions. To call general squirminess or a willingness to learn cooperatively a biological mandate, however, takes us past tendencies and preferences into unproven recommendations. Good teachers spend time working with all students’ inclinations and strengths—and the range of learning preferences is just as broad with a group of girls as with boys.

So why did my daughter thrive in all-girls environment, if it wasn’t because of girl-focused instructional techniques or atmosphere? It certainly wasn’t because her classmates were more serious or well-disciplined. (She and a new classmate had their navels pierced in 9^th grade, wearing their matching plaid skirts and white oxford blouses—so much for the parental comfort zone.)

For four years, however, when she was at school, it was about school—not boys, partying and other social distractions. She rolled out of bed every morning, and was ready in 5 minutes, hair jammed under a baseball cap, boxer shorts under her plaid pleats. No need for glamour. Everyone studied, so she did, too. Everyone went to college, and planned an interesting life, and she did, too. It was the thing to do. And when the homecoming dance or prom rolled around, she was doing the asking, calling the shots.

In Education Week, recently, there was a long and intriguing story about the proliferation of single-gender public schools in South Carolina. I hope they’re collecting data; separating classrooms by gender, at least part of the time, seems likely to improve achievement—and almost certainly can’t hurt. Our kids live a world full of often inappropriate, glittering media myths and images about relating to the opposite sex. If dividing them by gender removes a layer of distraction and lets them focus on learning, it’s worth a try.

Image: ali110/morguefile

Comments

[cupcake]

I could not agree more.

If I had all girls in my classroom, I would teach them very differently from how I would teach all boys. Trying to find the perfect mix of differentiated instruction for boys and girls - on top of fast-paced or slower-paced, kinetic or visual, participative or not - is a challenge.

And there is the age old problem of girls feeling intimidated in front of boys. Some of the ladies just will not speak out in class for fear of embarrassing themselves. The same goes for the boys, I imagine.

[The Science Goddess]

Do you think that your daughter's focus on studies might have been due to the culture of the school...instead of the single-sex environment? Obviously, there's no way to know for sure---but I'm wondering if she had gone to a co-ed college prep academy (where everyone is there to get ready for higher ed) would have meant the same behaviors at home?

[Nancy Flanagan]

Thanks for posting, Cupcake (just visited your blog site--very cool) and SG. How's the summer going?

My daughter's other choice-- the public school less than a mile away--has a very high college-attendance rate (in the 90-somethingth percentile), and most of those kids go to good schools, and on to good lives. I have no doubt that if she'd attended Public HS, she would have been a good student, and gone on to a similarly good college.

But she would also have been more focused on the social aspects, simply because they were there, in school with her, every day, including what to wear--you know, Lookin' Good for the Audience. There was a clear separation, in her education, between what happened in school and her social life. There were parts of her schooling-- debates on social justice issues, values and media, for example-- where she felt she could make her own choices, rather than worrying about what the guys would think about a girl who had strong political or moral beliefs.

Single-sex education was hardly a panacea, and, to be blunt, the constant cheerleading from the other parents about how great this school was (and how bad public schools were) drove me nuts. But--I ended up perceiving some real value in separating the sexes, to my surprise.

[Ariel Sacks]

I can really see how single sex education, at least part of the time, could be beneficial for teenagers. I did read some research this year, and I can't seem to find the link, that showed that single sex education benefits girls, but that boys do worse in all boys classes. They tried single sex classes in a public school I used to work at, (this was not on my floor) but the boys class was too difficult to handle. They had to scrap it halfway through he year. I also found research that says that boys do as well as girls in single sex classes, so maybe there are some other factors in the successful teaching of all boys classes that need to be looked at.

[Bill Ivey]

I teach in an all-girls school. I completely agree that we have a range of learning styles nearly as broad if not actually as broad as a coed school, and at any rate have noticed for years that all people have a need to work collaboratively, not just girls. Not having boys around might affect some of our students, but not all. So where does our success come from?

I think part of why we are successful is our culture - most of our kids arrive with a concern that learning is no longer cool in their local middle schools, and learning is still definitely cool in my school. But that could happen anywhere, of course, not just in an all-girls school. So...???

There is research done/compiled, I believe, by the National Coalition of Girls' Schools on self-esteem which suggests that all-girls education actually does not lead to increased self-esteem. However, it does change the source of that self-esteem from an external, appearance-based approval-seeking basis in coed classrooms, to a more internal, performance- and talent-based basis in all-girls classrooms. That is a powerful shift, and so I believe that as long as gender expectations in society at large remain as they are, there will be a need for all-girls education.

[Melissa B.]

I agree with you, wholeheartedly. Sorry to slam on the boys, but a classroom full of girls is heaven! I've also heard, though, that the boys settle down when they have fewer distractions.

[Nancy Flanagan]

Bill said:
" However, it does change the source of that self-esteem from an external, appearance-based approval-seeking basis in coed classrooms, to a more internal, performance- and talent-based basis in all-girls classrooms."

Bingo!! When my daughter was putting some heavy pressure on us to move to an all-girls' school, her English teacher told us that she was quiet in his classroom--didn't speak up often in discussions, didn't take strong stands on issues, didn't volunteer to take leadership roles in group work. "Then I read her journal," he said--"and there's this lively mind and articulate, passionate
voice." It was the possibility of releasing that voice that hooked us.

She would, I'm sure, have done as well in the co-ed school, in terms of grades, tests, and formal opportunities.

I know that "my child" stories are not research, or even enough material on which to base an op-ed or coherent blog. Nor am I suggesting that single-gender education is the answer--Ariel's story about the all-boys classroom being too much to handle is very believable, but also more reason to consider the advantages.

If you have to mix girls with boys to dilute their inappropriate behaviors, there's a problem to solve.

[Melissa B.]

BTW, I forgot to remind you--please drop in and check out my Super Summer Sunday Sweepstakes. I'd love it if you could share some Caption Love with us!