I had a little difficulty reading this article just because of that phrase: all girls schools. I'm so used to gently correcting people about Smith ("Actually, it's a women's college, thanks."). Granted, they are talking K-12 education, at which age the students involved really are girls so I'll check my desire to correct it.
Frankly, I agree with everything that this woman says. To focus too much of the grades and performance of girls attending single-sex schools misses all of the other, more amorphous benefits that come from being educated with same sex peers. I imagine it would've been a much gentler place to go through puberty and all the delicious awkwardness of adolescence Although I didn't have the benefit of a single sex education until college, I've seen the huge improvement in my confidence level, my public speaking skills, and my leadership ability (to be fair, I wasn't lacking terribly in any of those departments to start, but now I feel good about them which is just as important.).
Research shows girls tend to stop being shy and embrace more of their competitive side both in and out of the classroom when they go to all girls schools, while boys will scale back their "LOOK AT MY MASCULINITY" act. Girls feel more confident taking on positions of leadership, which will benefit them enormously once they must graduate and leave the haven of their female enclave. Much of the criticism of single-sex education is that it under prepares girls for the pressures of the real world which is obviously co-ed. Look at some of the graduates of Smith College (and other women's colleges boast just a prestigious a list), and tell me that these women couldn't thrive in the real world? Right. You can't.
I don't entirely buy the argument that girls and boys learn differently. It's just too close to jump from that to statements like "well female brains have a harder time with math" and "boys can't process and communicate their feelings like girls do," which sound like bullshit and reflect more of our stereotypes about the sexes than any innately gendered abilities or talents. However, she notes that girls tend to learn better in warmer classrooms, which I would've been all about as I remember my middle school being approximately 53 degrees inside at best, all the time.
Thoughts? Any of you go to single-sex schools for K-12? Was it a worthwhile experience?
Much love,
The Sheriff
I have a couple of concerns about advocating single-sex schools in this country. (Full disclosure: I've never attended one.) As far as I know, K-12 public schools are never segregated by sex (charter schools might be an exception), so all of these benefits you and the author name are not available to children whose parents are not finacially able to send them to a private school. Allowing wealthy people to buy better opportunities for their children always takes resources away from those who cannot afford to do the same.
ReplyDeleteProblem 2: What about trans and genderqueer kids? Segregating is always a mess for anyone who doesn't fit neatly into one of two categories. Are trans girls allowed at most private "all-girls" schools? I seriously doubt it.
Some girls surely do learn better in an environment with no boys present, and it's always good to be able to fit any child with the best learning environment for them, but at present this is an option really only available to children with a number of different types of privilege. That's not fair to those left behind with those boys who will still be dominating the coed classrooms. I'd rather work to fix that problem than split kids up based on their genitalia. (I don't think you're advocating for that). The research that shows that girls do better in single-sex classes makes me think that we need to do more to fix coed classes, not just pull girls out of them.
But! My K-12 experience in mixed classes was very different from that of the author. In my case pretty much all of the brightest, most ambitious students, who spoke up the most in class, were girls/female-bodied. I never felt shamed or embarrassed of offering my opinion, in part because my mom had always taught me never to act less smart for the sake of boys. I'm probably somewhat of a special case in that respect.
I completely agree that girls and boys don't learn differently and the idea that girls don't have an innate knack for math and science is bogus. That's just learned behaviour. Society dictates that math and science aren't feminine so girls are subtly pushed away from these subjects by social cues (much in the same way that they are pushed toward playing with feminine toys like Barbie dolls).
ReplyDeleteI think girls would benefit from an all girls school in which they can feel that all subjects are feminine and we have to stop implying to our daughters, gradndaughters, and nieces that they're not good at these subjects.
...but maybe that's just the Mathematics major in me talking.
Huh, I have trouble concentrating if the room's too warm. I agree in general, though- I'm a lot less shy about answering questions and such than I was in high school.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat related, did anyone see the article that was up in the admissions office two years ago? (And may well still be there, that's just the last time I was inside.) It said that someone had gone through and compared countries with the same gene pool but different cultures, like East and West Germany, to see how many girls vs. boys they sent to international math competitions, and the Communist countries had something like 10 times the number of their counterparts. It was really interesting.
Adrienne: I agree that the "what do we do with kids who don't fit neatly into our binary" thing makes education based on gender less of a wonderful thing. There are some public schools that are segregated by gender such as The Young Women's Leadership School network, but they are very much a minority in this country at this point.
ReplyDeleteAnd in general, our public schools are pretty busted, hence why I'm going int education to work on fixing it for all kids! :)
I disagree with a lot of the authors points in that article, such as her belief that boys are more outspoken in the classroom and that girls become pushed aside in mixed sex classes etc....just due to my personal experience (I've seen so many outspoken girls & females in leadership positions throughout my schooling!!) and the fact that women now dominate men in degrees & college enrollment.
ReplyDeleteGirls being shy and uncompetitive in a co-ed class is their own fault, as well as the boys trying to act manly. Well, it's mainly society's fault. Our society should encourage females to be more competitive and boys to me more nurturing! I personally think more confidence could be gained from attending a co-ed school because then students would perhaps try to make greater impressions.
Although I can acknowledge that there are benefits of attending an all-female school (I bet I would've been a lot less distracted without boys around during adolescence), I don't think that our society and culture should attribute so much matter to our genders! I'm all for diversity, diversity of race, class, & gender when talking about schooling - you can learn so much more, gain more perspectives from your classmates as well as identify yourself with people who are different from you.