This article made me think a lot on whether or not I agreed with the idea of if boys and girls should be seperated. I feel as though being seperated has its benefits and its downsides. The children can now concentrate on their studies instead of worrying about boys or being made fun of or anything. But it also takes away from social aspect of schooling. Maybe if classes were seperated based on sex then during lunch or recess children should be all together. This way they get the social aspect of being coed. Another downside might be that being seperated is teaching children that they are seperated because they learn differently when that might not always be the truth. Also, if a girl likes doing what boys do or vice versa then she might not fit in with the girls and be left out in an all girl classroom. I do not see the harm in classrooms being coed; afterall, thats how they have always been why change it. I am just fine and I went to coed schools all through life.
"David Chadwell, one of Sax’s disciples and the coordinator of Single- Gender Initiatives at the South Carolina Department of Education, explained to me the ways that teachers should teach to gender differences. For boys, he said: 'You need to get them up and moving. That’s based on the nervous system, that’s based on eyes, that’s based upon volume and the use of volume with the boys.” Chadwell, like Sax, says that differences in eyesight, hearing and the nervous system all should influence how you instruct boys. “You need to engage boys’ energy, use it, rather than trying to say, No, no, no. So instead of having boys raise their hands, you’re going to have boys literally stand up. You’re going to do physical representation of number lines. Relay races. Ball tosses during discussion.' For the girls, Chadwell prescribes a focus on 'the connections girls have (a) with the content, (b) with each other and (c) with the teacher. If you try to stop girls from talking to one another, that’s not successful. So you do a lot of meeting in circles, where every girl can share something from her own life that relates to the content in class."'
-This is a good explanation of how single sexed classrooms work; however, it is also stereotypical. Boys tend to be more rambunxious and girls tend to talk a lot. This statement is basically what Chadwell is saying and is where I disagree. However, I agree with what he says on instead of repremanding the children you enforce it, making boys to be physical and hands on and allowing the girls to talk and communicate. I do think that this should be done in all classrooms whether it be coed or not because no matter the sex child learn differently. I know if I went to school and they did this I would have enjoyed school much more. I will also try to use a similar technique when I become a teacher to keep the children's attention.
Overall, people have their own oppionions of different sex schools and both opinions should be viewed. Sexism still exists and usually is very stereotypical. Not only does sexism exist in schooling but also in many sports. I have first hand with this because I dance and I constantly hear "boys shouldn't dance, they should play football". This statement is ridiculous if the boy likes to dance let him dance. Also, many times girls are not allowed to play sports with boys and if they are they are not treated equally. Luckily, in my high school we had one girl play on the boys football team and she was treated equally, but many times she was called "butch" which I think is wrong. I think sex shouldn't matter if it does not harm anyone.
I agree with you Alexa, that genders shouldn't necessarily be seperated. But then, at the same time, MacLaren's article seemed to defend the idea of same sex education much better than Weil did. He wasn't as argumentative or 'hair splitting" as Weil was. Instead, he talked about the difficulties of being a young female in school. Though I don't really want to admit that it was or still is as difficult as it is, I feel that coming of age is thousands of times more difficult for women than men. Men become hormone raged pains in the necks. But women are repressed and raging and therefore must be above it all while at the same time time participating. There is such a double standard thqat is so engrained in us it is really picked apart. So in some ways, not having to deal with boys on a daily basis may have made me a better student. I don't know but I don't think I can definitively say no to one and yes to the other. Both seem like viable choices to different people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you have to say i do not thing boys and girls should be separated. I think it is good to have them in the same school because it will help with the social aspect. Also, i do though think it is okay to have separate boys and girls team because sometimes boys are rougher than girls so it makes it safer for girls to play with girls and boys to play with boys.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it should even be a question whether boys and girls should be separated. I think that it is up to the child or the parent whether they attend an all boys, all girls, or coed school. I, growing up, never wanted to be around girls. I absolutely hated them and thought boys were so much more fun to be around. I spent all recesses, lunches, and gym time around boys. When I was in my classroom, I would read with the boys. It was my option to be around them but it doesn't mean that they learned faster than I did or that I learned faster than them. It didn't mean that the teacher favored me more than them or vice versa. I think that schools should remain coed.
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