What is your opinion concerning same-sex vs coed education?

I think they should be mixed for the most part. Free tutoring should be available for any student who need it, along with advanced placement.

I am saddened that this is even a conversation. I am against same-sex education because I am against a sex-segregated world, I am for transgender rights (and where would trans and gender non-conforming people go to school?) and our children should learn how to co-exist with others. And some realities like girls learn better if away from boys or vice versa – they make me even sadder. Gender and its norms is the problem, the solution is not to perpetuate the shit.

I seem to recall a study that boys work better in same sex ed, but if the debate is heated I bet both sides have a stable of supporting studies to pull out their ass.

@Simone but if we’re dealing with developmental biology maybe putting children into a proxy war isn’t the best answer

Lord, when I went to college in the late 70’s they had just opened up the dorms for co-ed cohabitation. Different sexes in different wings, to be sure, but I was scared shitless I’d sleep walk and end up in the guy’s wing. That’s all I have to say about that. I didn’t read the article, so I may be way off base.

@drhat77 I am sorry I don’t understand what you mean by ‘proxy war.’ Developmental biology is not the end all and be all on this matter, not to me. Developmental biology, to me, does not hold any more weight than say sociology or any other discipline. All sciences, including social sciences, especially around sex/gender/sexuality are driven by societal views on this bs and it’s a really big deal for some people to continue battling on about how the sexes are really trully different underneath it all. No science is outside that, no science is purely objective on matters involving such complex human constructs – yes, even if the layered meanings are placed on biological facts like having a penis or a vagina or something in between.

I agree with you in that we are unlikely to find the real answer if each side feels strongly about their opinion. But if a counselor told me my child would benefit from one mode of education to the exclusion of another, I wouldn’t let any preconceived notions on my part sway my decisions.

@drhat77 Because this particular topic is one I have studied for over a decade, there is literally no way I would listen to any school counselor on this. I know my personal and professional opinion on the matter. Besides, in what possible world do you think counselors or researchers don’t have preconceived notions around gender? That’s what most social psych (not even my favorite discipline) tells us about looking into the matter, people are completely biased, generally on the side of the sexist status quo. And just in general, I make the final call on what’s best for my child, in all matters. People can give advice but that doesn’t make their words truth.

I’m for separating the sexes K-12, especially at the secondary level. But, at the same time, I prefer for it to be an option in education and not something all schools switch over to. I think for very young children it would probably help a lot of boys, and for teens it would probably benefit a lot of girls.

All discussions about education I usually feel like it depends on the child. Some do best in public school, some in private, some at home, and some probably would fare best in single sex schools.

@drhat Wouldn’t you do some of your own research rather than just accept the opinion of a counselor?

I’m all for keeping them mixed, it’s pychologically necessary for proper social development imo.

Do any of you know kids who went to all one gender schools who actually had some sort of a problem socializing or being with the opposite sex? I really don’t see that as the case. The girls I know who went to all girl schools worried less about having to have their hair styled and their schools used uniforns so that competitive problem was solved (of course you can have univpfirms in co-ed too). No make-up concerns. I figure they had a lot more sleep than I did. My SIL always thought going to all girls school was not great and wished she went to a co-ed school, we disagreed. Anyway, she eventually had her own children who went to co-ed schools, and now she has completely changed her mind. She thought the grass was greener, until she had some first hand knowledge. Well, first hand through her children.

People say the same about homeschooled children, that they will not know how to socialize and for the most part I find that not to be true at all.

@JLeslie My biggest concern is the reinforcement of rigid gender roles, since I think this may be the cause of many problems we’re seeing in our world today. Proponents of both coed and sex segregation each claim that their protocols concerning education actually oppose gender stereotyping, so I wanted to give each side a fair chance to convince me that their way is better.

Well, with limited access to peer review journals on various studies (it appears one has to subscribe to a site and pay to access the most important info) I tried to see what I could find. I didn’t want to go by own anecdotals from my experience attending both sex-segregated and coed classes alone to base a decision off of (like many proponents of each side tend to do).

I’ve found an article concerning a study conducted by Analia Schlosser claiming that she found students perform better overall when classrooms consist of at least 55% girls. In the study taken in Israel, she claims that when there are more girls than boys in a classroom it makes the learning atmosphere more pleasant for everyone involved, so students perform better.

Concerning the case for single-sex schooling I’d found an interesting article. There were several studies mentioned on it, with one of them focusing on gender stereotyping, whilst the other studies focused on grades and performance in sex-segregated enviroments. I’m more concerned with gender stereotyping, so I’m only going to focus on the study pertaining to that for now.

In the one study researchers wanted to focus on student performance and gender stereotyping in situations where students don’t have a choice in being randomly assigned to either a coed or single-sex school. That study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (on the link above) was done in South Korea, since it’s illegal in the U.S to force students to attend single-sex schools. Like the article states, this study was the first large-scale study of students RANDOMLY assigned to single-gender and coed schools. That study, like others, suggested that girls in all-girls schools are more likely to study subjects such as advanced math, computer science, and physics. Boys in all-boys schools are more than twice as likely to study subjects such as foreign languages, art, music, and drama.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir My biggest concern was that, despite the results concerning some success with eliminating gender stereotypes, the very notion of seperating sexes may create stereotypes by default. I do have some concern too that despite obvious differences in the ways that many boys and girls seem to learn differently, that considerations aren’t taken into account that there are nonassertive boys who might not take the single-sex schooling procedures well as his peers, and the same with girls who don’t adhere to expected behaviors asscoiated with that sex.

I’m also not fond of the fact that some of these publicly funded single-sex schools seem to treat their students drastically different just because of their sex, including discipline and educational procedures. Another concern of mine is that students should have to learn to get along with, and learn from others whom are from a different culture or sex. Students will have to learn to cooperate with others of a different sex inevitable anyways out in the real world once their schooling is up.

I’m still in the air on this one. If I went by my own anecdotals attending both types of schools it appears that gender stereotyping seemed to be much more reinforced with coed schooling more so than single-sex schooling. Most guys that graduated from coed schools took up more traditionally masculine fields while girls took up more typical feminine fields. I can’t speak for girls concerning single-sex schooling, but boys took up more typical ‘feminine’ interests much more often than I’d seen with coed schooling. Like I’ve said above I’m more interested in results from respected studies than my own experiences.

@Paradox25 Those links have me still leaning towards the single sex schools. Many boy moms of young boys are actually frustrated by the expectation of boys to sit still for long periods of time in school. There is an argument that a lot of boys are on ADD meds, because of the realistic expectations. The Israeli study is interesting that boys and girls do better with more girls in the classroom, but most classrooms are about 50/50, and maybe someone needs to study what is going on with boys that when they are in a group they are more likely to be unruly. This takes me back to Q’s about how they tend to haze, think it’s fun to be destructive, interruptive, etc. I absolutely do not think most boys are like that, but enough are that it should be looked into.

I am not worried about curriculum offerings or even sports in single gender schools. I think if there is any inequity with sports that sister/brother schools can have students play sports with a school that offers that sport, but most sports are divided by gender anyway.

Merideth Viera (Journalist and TV personality) when she talks about having gone to an all girls school said it never occured to her some careers are for men and some for women, and she must be in her 50’s. So, she grew up in a time when roles were still fairly divided, but it was changing.

It seems like the info you provided demonstrates boys and girls possibly follow their own path more readily with same sex schooling.

@JLeslie As a young boy I never had a problem sitting still for long periods of time and behaving. There were some boys who were more restless than others, but I definitely was not alone in being a more passive and behaved male. I was also thinking that maybe girls could benefit from more physical activity too during class, as my own experience has taught me.

I appreciated the fact that I got the chance to learn both industrial arts and homemaking, and it was good that girls had to do both too. There’s definitely little doubt in my mind that the old days of coed schooling reinforced gender stereotypes. My mother told me that all the girls had to wear skirts. Also, boys didn’t have the option of learning traditionally ‘feminine’ activities such as homemaking, and girls couldn’t take up shop classes.

I’m on the side that children should have options. I’m not sure if an all-boys school would be good for every boy, and the same thing for girls. I also believe people who prefer same-sex schooling should have the option to do so as well. Feminists seem divided on this issue.

@Paradox25 I did say I think most boys are behaved and able to sit still.

My home ec class had just as many biys as girls when I was in Jr. High. We all rotated through, home ec, wood working, leather working, and typing. I actually am annoyed home ec is gone from the schools in general even for girls. Home ec is being able to take care of yourself at the more basic. Cooking, cleaning, sewing on a button. Everyone should know how to do those things in my opinion.

We agree there should be options. :)

I wasn’t “allowed” to take shop, but I wanted to. We had some guys in Home Ec, but they readily confessed they were there because of the girls and, secondarily, the food, not for the skills they’d learn.

@Dutchess_III I can’t imagine my school not allowing someone to take a course based on gender. I do hear a lot of people say what you said though. That when they were younger it was divided by gender. I remember being quite young when someone pointed out to me most professional chefs are men. That might have changed at this point, but back then it was true.

HS in the 70’s. It was just starting to change then. I mean, if I had pushed it I could have taken shop, but I would have been discouraged and probably met with derision, although I’m more mechanically inclined than most people, male or female.

I was in jr. and high school in the early 80’s.