Single-gender classrooms: a grasp to the past

In America, everything is possible. We know this from the many movies we watch, the stories
we are told and of course the news we hear. Recently, this news contained a rather
interesting story. The Los Angeles Unified School District opened its first girls-only public
school. The founder of the school, the Girls Academic Leadership Academy (GALA), claims
that this measure will contribute to closing the so-called achievement gap between boys and
girls.1 The reason for this would lie in recent discoveries researchers made. They state that
there are structural and functional differences between the two sexes. These differences
tend to profoundly affect human learning, and according to the GALA, these should be used
to the students advantage to increase learning capabilities.

While this may seem like an effective effort to help student learning, it actually is the exact
opposite. We invented schools to educate our youth, there is no point debating that.
However, our schools were not built for the sole purpose of teaching subjects like maths and
history. Schools are more than that, they teach students more than that. A good school lays
the groundwork for a good and functional employee. Our society is diverse, and by
segregating the two sexes from each other, they miss out on valuable lessons for life. Boys
and girls learn from each other. They learn to cope with their hormones and how to act
around one another. This may not be something that is taught at schools, but it is an
essential by-product of mixed classrooms. One that is essential for students to transition into
society.

Secondly, creating single sex schools is a form of discrimination. A school cannot deny a
student simply because he or she does not have the right gender. This is defined as sexism
which is against our constitutional law. It also fabricates a problem for the male students.
Even though, female students may perform better in these single sex classrooms2, they are
abandoning their male counterparts. Male students have to cope with many more hormones
during puberty, and without the presence of female students, their classrooms lack a calming
influence.

However, male students are not the only ones who suffer from single sex classrooms. Single
sex classrooms often tend to be dull which causes students to lose attention. This results in
bored students, which makes it harder for teachers to actually teach students a subject. It
may also lead to more stress and burnouts for our teachers. This is a serious problem that
cannot be neglected, as there currently already is a teacher shortage. Increasing the stress
on teachers will not aid this problem.

Lastly, we are not living in the nineteenth century anymore. We cannot establish single sex
schools while pleading for gender neutral toilets. Equality is the topic of the day nowadays.
We see it as one of the fundamental rights we have. It is clear that gender segregation is
from the past, and with the contemporary trend of gender neutrality, it is impossible to
maintain this way of life.

Coen Sloos 540 words

V2

1
Do students learn better in single-gender classes? - Instruction handout
2
Single-Sex Classrooms Educators, students say change makes a difference - Arika Herron