Did you know that single-sex classrooms are the worst classes ever? Over the past decade, single-gender classrooms have been opened in at least 230 schools in the rural, suburban, and the urban areas. Single-gender classrooms are classrooms where either young girls’ are in one class together, or young boys are in another class together. Single-sex classrooms were created because studies showed that boys and girls learn differently and they could benefit from being in a classroom with peers to whom they can relate. Since 2008, single-gender education has been the key to improved educational performance among boys and girls throughout the years.
Segregated elementary classrooms in North America are resurfacing after becoming virtually non-existent after the 1950s. In 1972, after a law in the United States prohibited schools from discriminating academic programs from either sex, significant indicators of patterns of gender bias began to develop (Salomone, 2006, p. 781). Since then, social scientists have found that coeducation of both sexes in the same classroom is not a solution or remedy for deeply institutionalized preconceptions and attitudes and that gender inequalities are ingrained from elementary school through higher education (Salomone, 2006, p. 781). This paper will take a closer look at what researchers, educators, advocacy groups and students are discovering as this situation evolves. Examining the differences in how boys and girls learn, their experiences in single-sex classrooms and their social class may provide some insight to help us better understand the challenges experienced by many students.
In recent decades there has been a significant amount of research conducted for and against single-sex education. The choice between coeducational or single-gender schooling has various implications for the academic, psychological and social development of the student. Single-sex education is a normal practice in other countries due to cultural or religious beliefs. Single-gender education fell out of fashion in the United States in the 1970’s. It regained popularity in October 2006, when federal funding for single-sex classrooms in public schools as long as they as they are (1) voluntary and (2) of "substantially equal" quality content and teaching (Morin).
Single gendered classrooms have been debated for many years, though it was the only type of education available until late in the 19th century. Originally school systems catered to males, encouraging them and giving them the resources and opportunities needed to be successful in education. “As recently as 1970 less than 1 percent of medical and law degrees were earned by women,” showing just how much education has been biased towards males from a young age all the way through graduate school programs. Now, however, it is reversed and males are on the losing end of the education system. A book by Christina Hoff Sommers in 2000 says that “the typical boy is behind the typical girl in reading and writing, is less committed to school, and is less likely to go to college.
Although it is illegal for a school to be single sex, many schools today present single-sex class opportunities. But the scientific research shows that males and females concentrate harder and perform better when separated into single-sex classes. For many different reasons, several separate schools have begun to test the effects of single sex education in public schools (Pollard). In recent years, coeducational classes were believed to be an important aspect of k-12 education environments. Even as late as the 60s and the beginning of the 70s in areas of the US, boys and girls were put into different classes each day (Po... ... middle of paper ... ...mathematical skills because they are not surrounded by boys who are claimed to “dominate the classroom”(Hyde).
Ricks, D. (2011, June). Educating boys for success: Are today's classrooms biased against boys? Retrieved from National Education Association: http://www.nea.org/home/44609.htm Sun, Y., Zhang, J., & Scardamalia, M. (2010). Developing deep understanding and literacy whilde addressing a gender-based literacy gap. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology.
Education has been an important factor of all of our lives for an exceptional amount of time, but unfortunately, America has been falling behind from other nations in their education system compared to other nations (Pahlke 444). Almost all of our public schools in our country are coeducational and only handful of them are single-sex educational schools. Single-sex education should be taken into high consideration for most students to attend because of the benefits they might gain from them. It is important to look at all possible ways to try and better our education system for the benefit of the children and teenagers attending school. The most important years of schooling that provide a solid background for all students would be kindergarten through senior year of high school.
It is important that parents give information about sex. But, at the same time schools need to reinforce what the parents teach children to make sure the information is correct. Some also feel that sex education should only be taught at home by parents. That 's fine, except there is no guarantee that kids will be taught. In a formal survey of 8,000 college students over 12 years, fewer than eighty percent had received a meaningful sex education from their parents(Gordon).
What’s Happened To All the Boys? Writer Michelle Conlin wrote the article “The New Gender Gap” for Business Week about the way boys are learning and how they are having difficulties in all aspects of academics. Similarly, Elaine McArdle wrote the article “The Lost Boys” for Boston Globe, describing the female to male ratio in college and why it is slowly but surely becoming a concern. The imbalances of genders in college are a result of how boys and girls are being educated from as early as Kindergarten. Because of how the education system is set up, boys are slowly but surely becoming the second sex.
My aim is to find the key factors contributing to the failure of working class boys within Coventry schools using concepts of social class and gender. This will inform my method which will be bas on non-participant observation of six year 9 classes. Concepts and Context Since the early 1990’s statistics taken from education authorities indicated that the academic success of males has decreased, they have been out performed by girls at most levels of the education system with the exception of physics at A levels. More recent statistics taken from the 1999 G.C.S.E’s indicate that more girls than boys gained additional A*-C grades this supports my hypothesis of work... ... middle of paper ... ..., first thing Monday morning is going to have a completely different atmosphere compared with the lesson before break and lunch or the last lesson on a Friday afternoon. If I were to study them for a week I would be able to take all of this information into account and interpret it with far more accuracy.