SINGLE-SEX SCHOOL VERSUS CO-ED

Single-Sex School versus Co-Ed

Single-Sex School versus Co-Ed

We have spent several generations advancing the equality of the sexes. Beginning with the women's suffrage movement and continuing through to the present day many legal and social barriers to women's equality with men have been removed. Much progress has been made. With that in mind coeducation which is based on that laudable theme of equality seems like the right way to go. That's why most private and public schools use the coeducation model. Most of the time that works well.

On the other hand some research seems to suggest that boys and girls learn in different ways. Research shows that a girl's brain is different from a boy's brain. If you accept that premise, coeducation probably will not work satisfactorily for every child. Coeducation does have the advantage of being politically acceptable.

Another national study from UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies claims to show that girls from single sex schools have an edge over their coed peers. Some children thrive in a single sex school. Why? For one thing, the social pressures can be gentler. Your child can grow at his own pace. This often is a good thing for boys as they mature later than girls. The faculty at single sex schools understand how their students learn. They adapt their teaching styles to those specific needs. There are other advantages as well. For example, since a single sex school is basically homogeneous, that simplifies planning events and activities as you only have to consider boys or girls as the case may be.

The conventional thinking thirty years ago was that coeducation would somehow break down gender stereotypes. But that didn't always happen. The proponents of single sex education argue that boys in coeducational settings are less likely ...