Single gender classrooms

[Scrapheap]

The Middle School I wnet to for 8th grade is experimenting with single gender classrooms. Link

Does this sound PC, just plain stupid, or are they on to something??

[Christopher McCandless]

The Middle School I wnet to for 8th grade is experimenting with single gender classrooms. Link

Does this sound PC, just plain stupid, or are they on to something??

Most of the top schools in the UK are single sex, there are some sound education arguments for doing so.

[Phlexor]

If by that you mean single sex classrooms and co-ed playground, then yeah, why not.

[Parts]

I can see some uses for it but mainly how do you get around the equal yet separate issues they had with the segregated school in the South in the 1960's.  Is one going to be harder or the same they say the same but it's hard to judge when you have multiple teachers. It's also not a real world way thing get done.  Classes should be arranged by ability

[Peter]

My main concern is that the kids will miss out on a significant part of the intergender socialisation process that usually occurs in mixed-gender school environments.  Even if they're allowed to mix outside of the classroom, a lot of interaction occurs in classrooms, and isolating the genders in separate classrooms may have a knock on effect of reducing interactions outside of the classroom due to reduced familiarity between individuals in each group.  School should be as much about producing socially balanced individuals as it should be about the pursuit of academics.  

It's good that they're making an effort, at least.  When I was in primary school, it was just industrial-scale, government-run daycare, and nobody gave a shit about whether or not we learned anything or ended up well adjusted.  Mostly, they just plonked maths books in front of us and made us do maths exercises for hour after hour.  I used to like the occasional English lesson, since anything was better than more fucking maths exercises.  I didn't even get a science or foreign language lesson until year 7 (age 12), right before I went to secondary school, and those were just one-off lessons from a couple of teachers that visited the school for the purpose.  I also didn't become a maths genius, which would at least have been some consolation.

[Phlexor]

I can see some uses for it but mainly how do you get around the equal yet separate issues they had with the segregated school in the South in the 1960's.  Is one going to be harder or the same they say the same but it's hard to judge when you have multiple teachers. It's also not a real world way thing get done.  Classes should be arranged by ability

I think the thinking is that boys in highschool don't need to be distracted by young girls in class and girls don't need to be distracted by boys being retards.

['andersom']

The link you posted indicates that it is only for the lessons math and physics.

They could be on something there. Building up on older investigations. Where they saw that teachers approach boys and girls differently in a mixed class, and more similar in seperate classes. This because teachers assumed these subjects to be boys subjects. Too lazy too look for links to back that up, sorry. But if I recall right, girls had an average score on math and physics that was lower than that of boys in mixed classes, and equally high in seperate classes.

Glad that it is only for those subjects. I would have hated it as a kid, to be surrounded by girls only. And I notice something similar in both my daughters, preferring to be around boys, because they are easier to understand. In general I think mixed classes are a good thing. School is to prepare kids for life. And we don't live in a separated social world.

[Icequeen]

I think it's a good thing, eliminates the jackasses and the rottweilers, might help them focus better also.


Jackasses = The guys always acting like total idiots in front of the girls.


Rottweilers = The jackasses girlfriends... that normally think you looking at "their" jackass means that you might "want" it.
 

[Blasted]

I spent 5 years in a same-sex school.  Never again do I want to be completely surrounded by girls all the time

[Scrapheap]

The link you posted indicates that it is only for the lessons math and physics.

They could be on something there. Building up on older investigations. Where they saw that teachers approach boys and girls differently in a mixed class, and more similar in seperate classes. This because teachers assumed these subjects to be boys subjects. Too lazy too look for links to back that up, sorry. But if I recall right, girls had an average score on math and physics that was lower than that of boys in mixed classes, and equally high in seperate classes.

Glad that it is only for those subjects. I would have hated it as a kid, to be surrounded by girls only. And I notice something similar in both my daughters, preferring to be around boys, because they are easier to understand. In general I think mixed classes are a good thing. School is to prepare kids for life. And we don't live in a separated social world.

The thing that pisses me off is that they don't have seperate English classes for boys.    That's the one thing that makes me think the whole thing smacks of PCness.

['andersom']

The link you posted indicates that it is only for the lessons math and physics.

They could be on something there. Building up on older investigations. Where they saw that teachers approach boys and girls differently in a mixed class, and more similar in seperate classes. This because teachers assumed these subjects to be boys subjects. Too lazy too look for links to back that up, sorry. But if I recall right, girls had an average score on math and physics that was lower than that of boys in mixed classes, and equally high in seperate classes.

Glad that it is only for those subjects. I would have hated it as a kid, to be surrounded by girls only. And I notice something similar in both my daughters, preferring to be around boys, because they are easier to understand. In general I think mixed classes are a good thing. School is to prepare kids for life. And we don't live in a separated social world.

The thing that pisses me off is that they don't have seperate English classes for boys.    That's the one thing that makes me think the whole thing smacks of PCness.

It is probably an attempt to get more kids to choose the exact subjects. At least that was what brought the discussion going here a while ago. Along with a campaign that girls should go for the beta subjects. They need more kids choosing beta. They don't need more kids choosing alpha. So, no attempts to improve the love for English in boys. It's need driven.

Separating the class, because of getting girls to think that exact subjects would not harm their girlyness, think that that is a bit of the reasoning. So many kids now going for economic or law related subjects. Technical studies are promoted in all kinds of ways. Think you need to like it though. And tricks won't really help.



Never made a difference to me. Being in mixed classes. And I don't think my points for Dutch would have been better in separated classes. The teacher just hated my voice, and for that reason gave me low points  

[Adam]

i think it's wrong because it's sex discrimination

where i live there were three schools. 1 mixed, 1 girls and 1 boys. the boys scool and girls schools were full of dicks and sluts respectively. although that could be more to do with my school being a grammar school, more than that it was mixed.

[McGiver]

Yes.  I believe that the boys hold the girls back.  Being born male gives you automatic birthright which is fucking lame.  Boys are catered to more than girls.  And if you take boys out of the equation I believe girls will excel. Boys bad. Girls rule.

[Queen Victoria]

The year before I started high school our parish school system segregated male and female students.  This was not done for any academic reason, but because they did not want the Negro boys and White girls in the same high schools.  This segregation continued for about 10 years.  The parochial high schools were and are sexually segregated in the New Orleans Diocese.

Neither my sister nor I attended high school with males.  It gave us and most of our fellow students a definite advantage because we did not have to "dumb" ourselves down to attract a boy.  My sister had an active social life, while I didn't.  The effect of NT versus HFA.  I think it would have been an absolute disaster for me to have gone to schools with boys because I was (and still am somewhat) clueless.  I would have just made a reputation as being that weird girl.

FYI, there were 900+ in our graduating class in 1967.

[sg1008]

I don't see it as being an outrageous problem...unless transgender kids were unable to use their identified classroom.

But, I don't see the need for it. Teaching classrooms full of kids will always be an issue given the diversity...I really think the ideal teacher student ratio should be 1:10, or less. Easier for the teacher to manage, and easier for the kids to have their needs addressed.