Single-sex education

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Single-sex classroom in Japan

Single-sex education is the practice of conducting education where male and female students attend separate classes or in separate buildings or schools. The practice was predominant before the mid-twentieth century, particularly in secondary education and higher education. Single-sex education is often advocated on the basis of tradition, as well as religious or cultural values. It is practiced in many parts of the world. A number of studies starting in the 1990s are showing statistical data that children from single-sex schools are outperforming students from coeducational schools, although some studies also say that these are non-conclusive. In 2002, because of these studies and bipartisan support, the US law of 1972 was revoked and funding was given in support of the single-sex option. There are now associations of parents who are advocating for single-sex education.

1 Short history
2 Sex differences
3 Academics
4 Socialization
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Short history

1960s: mandated shift to coeducation in many Western countries; Reasons: coeducation is a less expensive way of schooling the baby boomers; the thrust towards gender equality
1972: US Law making coeducation in public schools obligatory
1990s-2000s: some studies supporting single-sex education: children of single sex schools are outperforming children in coeducational schools

US: “Together or separate?” (Cornelius Riordan 1990)

Germany: “Was coeducation a historical error?” (Der Spiegel 1998)

Australia: 20-year study of 270,000 students (2000)

England: The National Foundation for Educational Research (2002)

France: “The Pitfalls of Mixed Education” (Fize 2003)

US Law of 2002: revocation of obligatory coeducation in public education; 3 million dollars were allotted to support the single-sex school option

In the US, single sex education receives bipartisan support. Hilary Clinton said in June 2001: “Our long-term goal has to be to make single-sex education available as an option for all children, not just for children of parents wealthy enough to afford private schools.”

[edit] Sex differences

The practitioners of single sex school state that boys and girls learn differently. The brain is a sexed organ. There are significant differences between male and female brains.

On the other hand, intersexuals and transgendered individuals would defeat the purpose of single-sex education, as they would not be one or the other.

[edit] Academics

Many supporters of single-sex education hold that it can help students learn more effectively.

Several studies show that single-sex groupings deliver advantages to students. Dr Rowe, a Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research, presented the VCE Data Project – a population study of 270,000 Year 12 students’ achievements on 53 subjects of the Victorian Certificate of Education over a 6-year period (1994-1999). The findings indicated that after adjusting for measures of students’ ‘abilities’ and school sector (government, Catholic and independent), the achievements of boys and girls in single-sex environments were, on average, 15-22 percentile TER ranks higher than the achievements of their counterparts in co-educational settings.

According to defenders of coeducation, segregated learning facilities are inherently unequal. System bias will reinforce gender stereotypes and perpetuate societal inequalities in opportunities afforded to males and females. Single-sex schools in fact accentuate gender-based educational limitations and discrimination. Boys' schools do not offer cheerleading or home economics classes, while girls' schools do not offer football or wood shop.

However, gender roles can be subverted in a single-sex environment; boys will be more likely to pursue the arts, and girls more likely to pursue math and science. Margrét Pála Ólafsdóttir, an Icelandic educator who introduced single-sex kindergarten to Iceland in 1989, stated: "Both sexes seek tasks they know. They select behavior they know and consider appropriate for their sex. In mixed [i.e. coed] schools, each sex monopolizes its sex-stereotyped tasks and behavior so the sex that really needs to practice new things never gets the opportunity. Thus, mixed-sex schools support and increase the old traditional roles." In one school which shifted from coeducation to single sex education, the girls who once didn't want to take up playing the trumpet, took courage to take it up in the single sex system and became very good at it.

Without the presence of the opposite sex, students will be less distracted from their academics.

Female graduates of single-sex schools go on to achieve greatness in typically male-dominated careers and statistically obtain more high-ranking positions in Fortune 1000 companies than girls who were educated in a co-educational setting.

[edit] Socialization

Critics of the single sex education argue that without the presence of the opposite sex, students are denied a learning environment representative of real life. This deprives them of the opportunity to develop skills for interaction with peers of all genders in their work environment and fosters ignorance and prejudice towards the other gender.

However, the defenders argue that socialization is not the same as putting together, but is a matter of educating in habits such as respect, generosity, fairness, loyalty, courtesy, etc. And this can be done with more success knowing the distinct tendencies of boys and girls.

Defenders also state that there are more teenage pregnancies and sexual harassment cases in coeducational schools. Catholics usually refer to teachings of Pope Pius XI in 1929. He wrote an encyclical entitled "Christian Education of Youth" where he addressed the topic of coeducation. He said: "False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method "co-education." This too, by many of its supporters is founded upon naturalism and the denial of original sin."