Sex in education (not what you're thinking!)
An Ocean County school district is considering having two of its sixth-grade classes designated as single-sex classrooms as an experiment to see if breaking up the girls and boys has any effect on student performance. See http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060523/NEWS02/605230439/1070 .
Parents are being surveyed to see if there's enough interest in pursuing this for next year, and I considered my own feelings on the matter. Would I want my school's sixth grade to be split by gender? Probably not, if I was a fifth-grader. But I'm a mom and one-time sixth grader. Taking a year off from sitting in class with members of the opposite sex as you deal with zits, your rapidly changing body and, for girls, makeup experiments gone awry might not be a bad idea.
But the aim expressed by advocates for such classes is primarily to encourage more participation by the genders in nontraditional subjects, i.e., math and science for girls and arts and literature for boys. It does seem that most science and history teachers -- in my day and today -- are men while most art, literature and music teachers are women. All my math teachers in high school were nuns, not a guy in the bunch, so I can't comment on that.
It will be interesting to see what happens if the district decides to pursue it.
Parents are being surveyed to see if there's enough interest in pursuing this for next year, and I considered my own feelings on the matter. Would I want my school's sixth grade to be split by gender? Probably not, if I was a fifth-grader. But I'm a mom and one-time sixth grader. Taking a year off from sitting in class with members of the opposite sex as you deal with zits, your rapidly changing body and, for girls, makeup experiments gone awry might not be a bad idea.
But the aim expressed by advocates for such classes is primarily to encourage more participation by the genders in nontraditional subjects, i.e., math and science for girls and arts and literature for boys. It does seem that most science and history teachers -- in my day and today -- are men while most art, literature and music teachers are women. All my math teachers in high school were nuns, not a guy in the bunch, so I can't comment on that.
It will be interesting to see what happens if the district decides to pursue it.
2 Comments:
I don't know about 6th graders, but definitely high schoolers should be separated by gender. All of the distractions back in high school would have been magnified greatly if we had not been in an all-boys school. As it was, we spent a lot of time talking about, and thinking about, girls. I can only imagine how much time we would have wasted if girls were actually among us.
This is such a great idea. I remember being in 6th through 12 grade. My concerns where how I looked I was terrified I would have to get up in front of class with boys and give a report. I also think uniforms in school are a great idea. If I had been in an all girl class I would have concentrated more on studies and teacher.
Post a Comment
<< Home