Research paper
We have seen a lot of discussion about single-sex schools and their importance in a respect of overall quality of education. And each party of this dispute has a great number of people who support it. And it is really hard to be totally sure which one is a better option: a single-sex or co-educational school because both alternatives have some pros and cons. Some academics say that “there is "no well-designed research" proving that single-sex schools improve academic performance, they have urged the Department of Education to "heed the evidence" and prohibit "sex-segregated classrooms" in public schools. Single-sex education increases gender stereotyping and legitimizes institutional sexism." (Hoff Sommers, 2011) However, I think that banning single-sex educational establishments is not a wise decision because they have a lot of advantages for a quality of education in general. Single-sex schools are in general oriented on academic progress and also pay a lot of attention to the development of every personality. Children who attend single-sex schools are usually well-behaved, confident and have a strong motivation toward the studies.
It has already become a widely-known belief that single-sex education delivers better results in children’s academic performance. According to a study of an Australian researcher Kenneth Rowe who worked on academic records of some high school seniors “both boys and girls attending single-sex schools scored 15-22 percentile points higher than their counterparts in coeducational schools.” (Jost, 2002) Most people consider this fact to be a main point that proves single-gender education is more effective. Students who attended all-boys or all-girls schools are usually much more confident and motivated in class as they do not become distracted. “Then, as they get older, boys and girls distract each other from academics because of normal social and sexual development” (Jost, 2002) The single-sex schools have also good influence on the representatives of minorities as it make children equal and they receive much more confidence to take active part in the academic process and the school life. Cornelius Riordan, a professor of sociology at Providence College have found out during his research “that minority girls and minority boys in single-sex schools did better – about the equivalent of one grade year – than minority boys or girls respectively in coeducational schools.” (Jost, 2002) This proves the better attitude towards studies that a single-gender school can provide to its student. They also develop a better outlook on life as they get a chance to follow successful role models and they are not going through gender stereotyping. They study exactly what they are interested in as the subjects are not classified into “male” and “female”. It gives students the freedom to choose a future career and start working on it at the younger age.
Besides having a positive influence on the academic performance of students single-sex schools also can make be very useful to the personal development of every child. Attending a single-sex school can protect children from such negative displays of coeducation as bullying, gender stereotyping, disrupting behavior, teasing and so on. It is much easier for boys and girls to grow up in the same-gender environment. Both boys and girls are more likely to be open and remain themselves when they are surrounded by the representatives of same sex. They do not want to impress anyone so it allows them to be real and do things that they want to do instead of doing something that is considered “cool” by the representatives of other gender. The single-gender environment also reduces the instances of sexual harassment. According to Riordan “a great deal of sexual harassment occurs on school grounds, even in classes. It does not occur I single-sex schools.” (Jost, 2002) This means that the level of aggression among the students of single-sex educational establishments is much lower than in the coeducational schools. Needless to say, there is still competition among students of the single-sex schools, however, it usually is not that serious. Thus, we can say that obtaining education in a school of a single-gender type can be a very helpful in the right upbringing of the confident and emotionally strong person. It is mostly explained by the fact that children get a chance to build up a stronger personality while growing up as they are protected from the negative influences of gender stereotyping.
In spite of the positive results of numerous researches that prove the significance of single-sex education there are still a lot of people who are against it. They often say that a coeducational environment provides children with more useful real-life social skills. “Research in this area show that students from single sex schools are more hesitant expressing their views in front of members of the opposite sex and have more trouble forming friendships with the opposite sex as well.” (Ninnes, 2007) Many students who graduated single-sex schools often state that they feel like they were missing out a lot and it was also quite hard for them to get used to our real world. “Having girls separate from boys can hinder their social interactions and experiences. In the long run, single-sex education can be detrimental for both girls and boys in our coed world.” (Sherratt) There also have been many opinion on the fact that single-gender environment in schools can develop homosexuality among children or in other cases maybe even homophobia. These are the main negative aspects of an education in the single-sex type of schools.
However, we should not forget the basic idea behind the single-sex education in our society. It was proven by many scientific researches that boys and girls are very different in how they learn. There are many gender-related issues that influence the academic performance of children. While girls are more successful with learning the humanities and have troubles with math and technology classes boys, on the contrary, experience problems with literacy but are more capable in math and sciences. It is extremely important for coeducational establishment to find gender-friendly solutions on how to achieve the maximal learning of every student. Boys and girls are different in their development and thus they need different approaches in learning. In order to achieve effective education teachers should implement different strategies designed in accordance with the special needs of boys and girls. The first strategy that can be very useful is pairing the educational process with movement. “Pairing learning with movement is especially important for many boys because it helps them stay out of the neural rest (boredom) state. But because it increases brain activity, movement can also help girls learn.” (King, Gurian & Stevens, 2010) Another way to stir the attention and the imagination of students is involving visual aspects into the learning process. The problem with boys is that they get distracted very easily and it is hard for them to stay focused for a long time. It means that having visual objects as a part of their tasks can be very helpful in keeping their attention on the subject.
As we can see there are many arguments both for the single-sex schools and the coeducational establishments. All these arguments are understandable and have sense. However, they are contradictory. So which type of education is better and more effective? In my opinion, the choice should depend on every particular family. There is a lot of information on both types of schools so parents have a chance to browse it before choosing the right option for their child. There is no need to ban single-sex schools as they provide a very high quality of education and self-discipline. They are also very good in upbringing strong and confident individuals who usually have good jobs later. But typical coed schools, in their turn, prepare children for real-life world and make them adjust to it from their young years. It is much easier for students who graduate from coeducational establishments to fight sex stereotypes and be able to communicate with all people no matter of their gender. There are many pros and cons relating both types of education. Parents should keep in mind that the future of their children mostly depends on them and making the right choice so they need to make sure they know what they want for their child and which one would be the best way to achieve the desired goals.
References
Sherratt, A. Girls vs.Boys. Should boys and girls attend separate public schools? Weeklyreader, p.7
Jost, K. (2002, July 12). Single Sex Education. The CQ Researcher, 12, No.35, 569-592.
Ninnes, K. (2007, May 21). Single Sex Schools vs. Coed Schools.
Hoff Sommers, C. (2011). Eight academics oppose all-boy or all-girl education in public schools. Why their 'Science' article pitch is misguided. USA TODAY, section: news, p.09a.
King, K., Gurian, M., Stevens, K. (2010). Gender-Friendly. Educational Leadership, November 2010, 38-42.
