Single Gender Classrooms: Breaking Down Stereotypes?

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PRESS RELEASE
August 22, 2009

(BLACK PR WIRE)– Schools segregated by gender seemingly went out of fashion in the 1970’s yet proponents of this system of simultaneously educating boys and girls, just in different classrooms or schools, are affecting a comeback of the old system. Public schools across the nation, many in predominantly African American locales, are utilizing this system of separating the girls from the boys in hopes of improving reading and math scores by alleviating distractions.

According to statistics provided by the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE) website, single-sex schools break down gender stereotypes. Girls are most likely to study computer science and technology in single-sex education environments than girls educated in a coed facility. Furthermore these girls are more likely to compete in and excel at competitive sports than are girls attending coed schools. Boys attending single gender schools are said to study more openly renouncing the notion that studying and academic success is “not cool.”

Opponents of same-sex education state that this method of educating youth could end up stereotyping and discriminating against students based on gender. While boys and girls do often learn in different ways due to the subtle differences in their brain trajectories, not all girls and boys learn the same way or have the same strengths. Proponents of this education initiative, on the other hand, opine that because girls and boys are so diverse in their interests and strengths, single gender environments offer the unique and extraordinary education opportunity for both to excel academically without being labeled or stereotyped based on their gender. Perhaps only time, student opinion and test scores will tell.

courtesy of Black PR Wire

Pamela says:

August 26, 2009 at 9:30 am

We need to first look at the fact that we socialize boys and girls differently, and how it is reinforced in the classroom by separating them. This type of thinking is taught in teacher education programs.

Learning styles and comprehension typically takes a back seat when developing a curriculum so that rote learning becomes the preferred method. The thinking is that it ‘levels’ the learning process. Students are then singled out by their race, class or gender for not learning.

Separating students by gender only ‘seems’ to be a good idea because the differences already exist. We cannot continue this type of teaching if we want learning (and socializing) to be equitable.