Girls-only schools send a message about boys
Boosters of single-gender classrooms tend to describe boys as loud,
aggressive and distracting
January 14, 2005
At some point in a little boy's life comes a revelation:
girls aren't contagious.
Typically, this happens for us in about Grade 6. The
world transforms from a sports-and-toys club to a co-ed
realm where boys begin to comb their hair.
Junior high girls inspire in boys a primal sense of
wonder and fear. Let me tell you, it is a long and
nervous walk across the darkened gymnasium to ask a
girl to dance. And it is a lonely and shame-faced return
journey if she declines.
I can't imagine what it would have been like if girls had
been removed from my wonder years; if the modern
movement to same-gender schools was the norm back
then.
Edmonton Public Schools has for years run the Nellie
McClung junior high program for girls. Now Edmonton's
Catholic school board is planning a similar program.
Segregating girls is viewed as a progressive move
towards gender equality. Studies show that girls in
same-gender schools not only tend to get better marks,
but continue to pursue such male-dominated subjects
as math and science in later years.
The explanation for this is that girls are more likely to
join in classroom work, more likely to demonstrate their
intelligence, in the absence of the opposite sex.
Yet if there is hope in all this for our daughters, what
does it say about our sons? I fear it says this: Boys,
being boys, are a problem.
Boosters of all-girls programs variously describe boys
as loud, aggressive and distracting in the classroom.
And in some cases, they can be.
University of Alberta professor Heather Blair has studied
same-gender programs extensively.
Scott McKeen
The Edmonton Journal
CREDIT: Rick MacWilliam, The Journal, File
U of A professor Heather Blair has studied co-ed
classrooms.
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