It seems prehistoric in a society striving towards gender equality, but single-sex education might be a better way for kids to learn.
istrict School Board presented a proposal calling for the creation of a “Male Leadership Academy,” which would open in fall 2010.
The initiative is aimed at boys who don’t benefit from the co-ed style of learning and are lagging behind in literacy.
Premier Dalton McGuinty is backing the proposal, saying he likes the idea of boys-only schools because studies have shown boys benefit from a curriculum that speaks to their “special needs.”
The biggest issue of inequality isn’t separating boys and girls in school, but that the City of Toronto is opening an all-boys school and not doing the same for girls.
Cheryl Boughton, Headmistress at Elmwood School, a private all-girls’ school, says from a very young age girls develop faster than boys, but around Grade 5 face a self-esteem crisis.
“They feel they aren’t as valued in the world and lower their aspirations,” she says.
Boughton says the environment in co-ed schools actually perpetuates inequality because they foster gender stereotypes.
“The girls play the flute, and the boy plays the trumpet,” she says, noting that at Elmwood, 50 per cent of graduates go on to study math, science and engineering, fields traditionally dominated by men.
But, since school is seen as “the great socializer,” the Toronto District School Board’s proposal was met with a flurry of backlash over the negative implications of single-sex schooling.
Joel Westheimer, Democracy and Education Research Chair at the University of Ottawa, says while some kids think separation gives them more freedom, as a parent and educator he feels there are definite drawbacks.
“The problem is that we don’t live in a single-sex world,” he says, “It sends the message that boys and girls are distractions and can’t be friends.”
But Elliot Benjamin, a former student at St. Michael’s, an all-boys school in Toronto, disagrees. He says even though he went to an all-boys school, he still socialized with girls and had female friends outside of school.
“Going to an all-guys school made me who I am today,” he says, adding that it made the time he spent in school about learning and not flirting.
Considering the divisiveness of single-sex schooling, perhaps the best solution is seperate classrooms, rather than schools.
That would take into account the benefits of boys and girls learning separate from one another, as well as their need for socialization.
At Ottawa’s Stephen Leacock Public School, kids were separated for math and English classes from 2004-2006 and Roberta Bondar Public School, in Ottawa South, currently runs one Grade 7 class for girls and another for boys.
In Prescott, Maynard Public School has also experimented with separate classes.
John Bourne, a former teacher at the school who was involved in the project, says they made the decision for the same reason the Toronto District School Board is proposing the Leadership Academy – because boys were scoring lower on literacy tests.
Bourne says the biggest feedback they got from boys was that they didn’t like the types of books that were reading in their co-ed classes. They wanted to read more action and graphic novels, do hands-on activities and complete assignments orally.
He also says girls reported feeling “overwhelmed” by boys’ personalities and wanted to be more involved in the education process by setting personal goals for themselves.
The program evolved and soon Maynard, like Stephen Leacock, was separating boys and girls for math and science as well.
Single sex classrooms within one school mean boys and girls can still socialize during recess and at lunchtime, Bourne says.
Bourne now works at a Grades 7 to 12 school and says he would like to see single sex classrooms there as well. Especially in Grades 7 to 9, which include ages 11 to 14.
It’s in these pubescent years, when hormones are raging and boy-girl relationship drama begins to fester, that students benefit the most from being separated.
No, it’s not 1959. But, it seems junior high and high school have become more about re-enacting scenes from The Hills, than learning about the causes of World War II.
It should be remembered that the focus of school is learning, thinking and conversing. But, it won’t happen if drama follows teens from the hallways into the classroom.
However, there is a potential for the curriculums in single-sex classrooms to become gendered.
What happens if The Secret Garden is selected for the girl’s English class and The Hobbit for the boy’s class?
Does that send the message that girls shouldn’t read The Hobbit and boys shouldn’t read The Secret Garden? And then there’s the issue of the transgender students. Which English class do they enroll in?
Clearly single-sex classrooms don’t come free of complication, but they do result in a higher quality of education and create equal opportunity for both boys and girls to succeed.
Most schools already separate boys and girls for phys-ed, why stop there?