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Single sex education and co education
Single-sex education essay
Single-sex education essay
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Single-gender education, more commonly known as single-sex education, is the practice of teaching boys and girls in separate classes or schools. In many countries single-gender education is the norm due to religious or cultural beliefs. The practice has only become popular in the United States public schools within the last decade. However, single-sex education has been continually in practice in many private schools across the nation.
History of Single-Gender Education in U.S. Public Schools
At the time that the nation was founded, only boys received public schooling while the girls were educated at home, if at all. A cultural shift occurred in the early 1800s, allowing girls to attend school in all-girl classes; however, they only received instruction either before or after the standard school day for the boys. The practice of educating boys and girls together began in several communities in the early 1900s for economic reasons. They also noticed that the girls exerted a moderating influence on boy’s behavior (Bracey, 2006), which is now an argument in favor of creating single-gender classes.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, only private schools in the United States had been exclusively all boy and all girl schools, even though there was not a law forbidding the practice in the public schools until the 1972 passage of Title IX legislation. Title IX made gender segregation illegal in almost every aspect of school, including athletics, medical services, admission practices, career counseling, and the treatment of students. Federal funds would be withheld from schools that violated Title IX (Brake, 2001). Title IX pushed the trend of co-education for almost 30 years and is believed to have had a significant national impact ...
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...g single-sex schools in the U.S.:trends, court cases, and conflicting laws. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 356-362.
Chadwell, D. (2010). New Voices Single-Gender Classes Can Respond to the Needs of Boys and Girls. ASCD Express, 78-80.
Michael Robert Younger, M. W. (2006). Review of Single-Sex Teaching in Coeducational Secondary School in the United Kingdom. American Educational Research, 579-620.
Piechura-Couture, K., Heins, E., & Tichenor, M. (2011). The Boy Factor: Can SIngle-Gender Classes Reduce the Over-Representation of Boys in Special Education? Journal of Instructional Psychology, 255-263.
Sax, L. (2007). Boys adrift: The five factors driving the growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men. New York: Basic Books.
Whitmore, R., & Bailey, S. M. (2010). Gender Gap : Are Boys Being Shortchanged in K - 12 Schooling? Education Next, 53-61.
Tannen points out “a greater percentage of discussion time is taken by men’s voices.” (2) She tells us why this is a disadvantage to the women in the classroom. She then continued to separate the two genders into their given stereotypes. Girls tend to separate themselves from large groups; they talk amongst
Gerry Garibaldi, a high school teacher and Michael Kimmel, a professor of sociology both explain how the consequences of the feminism movement are harming boys in school and later in life. Kimmel and Garibaldi present their views on the gender education problems in their articles “How The Schools Shortchange Boys” and “A War Against Boys”. Both make passionate arguments and prove that boys are at a disadvantage in modern feminized classrooms. Kimmel’s arguments about the problems boys face in the American educational system are more convincing than Garibaldi’s, because his style of argumentation is more objective, supported by more statistics, and provides unbiased restatement of opposing views.
It seems that single-sex education perpetuates gender stereotypes and promotes gender bias among students (Taylor). Gender-separate education requires schools and teachers to create gender-oriented courses, facilities, and learning environment. As a result, sing-sex schools exacerbate sexist attitudes and “feelings of superiority toward women” (Guarisco). It is fair to argue that the best way to achieve gender equality is to promote rather than eliminate interaction among girls and boys. However, girls in the sex-mixed class receive less attention from teachers than boys, which may lead to gender bias. More precisely, boys always have disciplinary issues, such as interruption; teachers have to pay more attention to boys’ behaviors in order to proceed the lecture more smoothly. Girls may feel less important and supportive in male-dominated classes; boys may think that males are smarter and far superior than females. Single-sex schools can address both girls’ and boys’ issues of gender stereotypes directly and accordingly. Male students may be freer to engage in some activities they have not considered before in mixed schools. For example, boys feel pressure to follow some non-macho interests when girls stay around them; however, the all-boys schools eliminate their pressure toward gender stereotyping to pursue music, dance, and drawing. Single-sex schools would help boys explore and develop themselves. Also, girls in sex-separate schools show more confidence and power (Guarisco). They could receive full attention from teachers and express their opinions in science classes without worrying about the boys’ banter. They may realize that they are as important as boys. Hence, both girls and boys can be free from gender stereotypes and benefit from a same-sex learning
Single sex classes may help to break down stereotypes that the coeducational classroom may inadvertently reinforce. While attending single sex schools, students are more likely to excel in any subject, rather than limit ...
Sadker, Myra, David Sadker, and Susan Klein. "The Issue of Gender in Elementary and Secondary Education." Review of Research in Education 17 (1991): 269. JSTOR. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.
The merits of single-sex schools include classrooms focused on only one gender, a sexual harassment free environment, and a place for students to focus on school and not their appearance. In an interview with Vanessa Vogel, she stated, “I think that in schools like mine [single-gender] the students are not afraid to ask questions that they might be embarrassed to ask in front of the other gender. This helps me to learn more about the specific subject. This is especially helpful in mandatory classes like health.” Additionally, Studies have shown that students in single-sex schools and classrooms are more likely to receive higher scores on quizzes and tests, than students in co-educational schools and classrooms.
Education was sex segregated for hundreds of years. Men and women went to different schools or were physically and academically separated into “coeducational” schools. Males and females had separate classrooms, separate entrances, separate academic subjects, and separate expectations. Women were only taught the social graces and morals, and teaching women academic subjects was considered a waste of time.
Sending a child to a gender based school, is a very big decision to make. The decision is so big, that looking at what research has to say about the topic could alter one’s decision to send their child to a gender based school. “Educators must apply different approaches in teaching make, and female students” (Gurian). This is said by Gurian, because he also believes that boys and girls learn differently. “Social pressures can be gentler and your child can learn at his own pace” (Kennedy).
In this paper I will use a multitude of research that shows scholarly evidence on why single sex education is harmful to one’s over all wellbeing and physiological health throughout one’s life. Single sex education is defined, as “the practice of conducting education where male and female students attend separate classes or in separate buildings or schools”(Pinzler, p. 785, 2005). The controversy over single sex education involves aspects such as its effectiveness and social ramifications of binary genders. Supports of single sex education believe that there are fewer distractions because everyone is of the same sex. Supporters also believe single sex education is also seen as a way to break down stereotypes such as women not doing well in the math and science field. They believe that single sex education helps males also break out of typical gender roles such as hyper masculinity. However, proponents believe separating girls and boys makes little to no difference in their academic achievement and is actually more harmful to your identity.
Same sex classes make it possible for teachers to cater to student needs in a more efficient way. In general boys benefit from hands on learning, but girls benefit from calm discussions (Mullins 3). Girls tend to doubt themselves while boys think they can do anything. Boys need to be brought down from the clouds while girls need to be dug out of a hole (Mullins 3). David Chadwell says, "Structure and connection are two key concepts when examining gender in the classroom. All students certainly need both, but it seems that teachers need to consider the issue of structure more with boys and the issue of connection more with girls" (7), and Kristen Stanberry’s research has shown, "Some research indicates that girls learn better when classroom temperature is warm, while boys perform better in cooler classrooms. If that's true, then the temperature in a single-sex classroom could be set to optimize the learning of either male or female students" (1). These observations further support the idea that same sex classrooms can cater to student’s...
Students are more focused and therefore have better test scores in single-sex classrooms. Although stereotypes are formed because of separating genders, a study in the 2009 British Educational Research Journal concluded that in single-sex classrooms, girls achieve more in math and science while boys achieve more in English (Kwong). Stereotypes have been developed early on of what girls and boys are more proficient at. Naturally girls are better at English; boys, math and science (compound sentence: elliptical construction). Single-sex classes encourage girls to pursue more in science and math and boys in English because it takes away gender stereotypes. If a boy and a girl are in the same science class working together, the girl becomes the scribe to write down data while the boy is doing the experiment (Kwong). Math and scien...
The supporters of single-sex education believe that students are greatly interested in the educational process itself, not caring for their appearance or behavior. These types of schools help students acting freely without any motivations. Series of studies have proved that boys' and girls' brains are organized differently so each of them needs special treatment. Also each gender has its own privacy in joking and talking seriously. The scientists who support the theory of single sex education contribute their opinion religiously, saying that all religions call for separating both sexes as it is forbidden and against the religious teachings. They also think that mixing both genders inside any place is an evil deed that leads to committing sins that all religions forbid and say that there will be a severe punishment in the judgment day .While opposite opinions think that both sexes should exist together to grow up and learn how to be...
The single-sex format creates opportunities that do not exist in the coed classroom. (Edison 1) Researchers are unaware that both genders brains function differently. This lack of knowledge may be why the real truth about single-sex education being more efficient than co-ed education has not been discovered. Some say single-sex education may be the key for a brighter generation. It shows to improve test score dramatically. The number of public schools experimenting with single sex classes is now reported to be more than 350. (Silva 130) Some research also shows that single-sex classes have a more welcoming atmosphere. Single-sex education improves grades while coed educations keep an average pace.
There are many reasons that parents, students and administrators look down upon single gender education. One of the largest of these reasons is the issue of stereotypes. According to Kim Gandy, presi...
Garner, R. (2009). Why single-sex schools are bad for your health (if you're a boy). THE INDEPENDENT.