Gender segregated schools Essay Example for Free

Gender segregated aims EssayThe Benefits and Dis gains of Single-Sex Education Schools in archaean 17th deoxycytidine monophosphate America were fist modeled after English learning institutions after Puritans immigrated over to the English colonies. Originally only rich white males were allowed to bet educate to learn how to read and write. In legion(predicate) cases, most p atomic number 18nts placed their boys into the nine month long curriculum to keep them out of mischief. For the otherwise three months of the year, students would be released from school during the summer months to lend a hand on their familys arms to help cultivate the land and raise animals. During the summer months, wealthy white girls attended these same schools often taught by a female instructor to learn to read and write. Of the girls who could attend the schools, many were kept at home to be taught the essentials for their in store(predicate) such as cooking, sewing, and the caretaking of bab ies and toddlers (A Short History). Fast forward one hundred long time and the first co informational schools can be establish appearing in the American colonies, primarily the New England area. In these schools the major focus was to teach children how to read, specifically for religious purposes.The likely cause of the integration of boys and girls in schools is intellection to be stemmed from growing meter of female church numbers and the practical require campaign forcets of finding enough children to support schools in sparsely populated regions making schools much practical to spread religion (A Short History). After the revolutionary war, American citizens saw that womens education was important and was needed to promote good citizens and great leading in society. With this state of mind, many private schools opened their doors to coeducation and allowed both boys and girls to attend school together.Until the late 1840s, only rich white boys and girls were allowed to at tend schools because in that location was no government funded schools. That changed when reformers Horance Mann and Henry Barnard succeeded with their efforts to promote a free public school system. This finally allowed all white children to attend schools together for free. The only exception to gender-integrated schools where Catholic families who objected the practice of coeducation on moral and religious grounds and that males and females had profoundly distinct purposes to fulfill (A Short History).Because of this many catholic schools remained segregated y gender. In the early 1900s many schools created classes specifically to prepare boys and girls for their future. Girls were taught home economics and traditionally feminine labor skills, such as secretarial run away and or garment-making charm boys were educate in industrial arts, bookkeeping, and commercial geography (A Short History). These classes were introduced for the importance of the growing labor market of the time period.In todays society, some parents are approach with placing their children in gender- segregated schools or in public schools to soften benefit their children. The problem brains of the two genders learn different subjects at different ages. So, with this, boys or girls have an advantage over each other. The same happens when puberty becomes a factor in adolescence as sound as in high school with distractions. On the other side, there are in addition benefits to public schools such as socialization with the adversary stimulate and better preparation for the real world.Then there are gender segregated schools that better accommodate teaching methods and times for specific sexes as well as better grades, less competition, and fewer distractions. Again there re bad sides to this too, such as less socializing and less competition to prepare someone for their future Job. With all of these factors, any parent faced with a decision like this go away have a hard time figu ring out what type of education their child should receive. One of the major arguments people make supporting gender-segregated schools is the fact that boys and girls brains differ in many different aspects.Whether it is an emotional difference or the structure of the brain, one gender forget do better in class than the other. In 2007, a team of neuroscientists from the National Institute of Mental Health conducted a study on subjects ranging in age from three to twenty- seven years old both male and female. Their results showed that the occipital lobe of the brain where visual processing is mostly associated with is developed much more(prenominal) rapidly in six to ten year old girls, as opposed to the male brain where this lobe does the majority of its development after fourteen years of age (Novotney).Another major brain difference between the girls and boys is that a girls corpus callosum is twenty- five per centum larger than a boys, making girls better at multit petition. A girls prefrontal ortex also develops earlier and larger than that of a boy, making girls better at abstract thinking and thought analysis as well as making better choices between right and wrong (McBride). Meanwhile, the cerebral cortex where mechanical and spatial thinking is conducted is used much more in boys. This results in boys having an easier time learning with movement and pictures as opposed to girls.With these different developed sections of the brain, girls gain an upper hand in classrooms over boys by slipway of better listening, sensory memory, and especially reading and writing. However, boys gain an upper hand over girls in maths as Leonard Sax a Ph. D. in psychological science and author of Why Gender Matters explains the fact that many middle-school boys await to learn algebra better when you give way with numbers, whereas many same-age girls seem to be more engaged if you start with a word problem.For example, if you are teaching equations in multiple variab les, the typical 7th-grade boy will do better if you begin by asking If x + 2y = 60, and 2x + y = 90, how do we solve for x and y? But the typical 7th-grade girl will be more engaged if you begin by asking If a sweater and two blouses cost $60, and two sweaters and a louse cost $90, how much does each blouse and each sweater cost? (Sax 15). By splitting boys and girls in school, a teacher can adjust a test to where the two genders of students both benefit from word or equation only math problems.According to Lisa Damour, Co-director of the Center for Research on Girls at Laurel school, a girls day school claims that the benefit of single-sex schools is that they offer the dynamic of having only one sex in the classroom at a time, creating girls class that would not work as effectively in a boys class and vice versa (Novotney). That way boys and girls are taught the same subject at different times in a better gender specified look. Many studies have statistically shown support tow ards gender-segregated schools as being better for students in both education and even individual(prenominal)ity.A study was conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania studying schools in Seoul South Korea that every which way assigned students to either attend a coed or gender-segregated school. In these schools, all students were from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The results of this study found that girls in gender- egregated schools were more likely to attend college after graduation as compared to girls at coeducational schools the same appeared in boys of both types of schools. Both boys and girls in these gender-segregated schools made higher test scores than coed schools in the same city.In another study conducted by Betta Hannover and her colleague Ursula Kessels found that American girls in girl only schools were more comfortable with physics. The National origin for Educational Research in England also supports that boys and girls do better on t est scores and boilersuit grades as compared to coed students regardless of background factors. The study also backs up the Hannover and Kessels study by finding that girls at single-sex schools were more likely to take non-traditional courses courses which run against gender stereotypes (Single-Sex).Student grades at single-sex schools could be better than evaluate by both boys and girls because boys and girls in the single sex schools are more comfortable enrolling in contradicting gender-stereotypical classes, like girls interested in computer science, and boys in art. These classes could seem a bit more difficult for some students bringing their overall grade down a bit even if it is in egard to students in different nations or here in America.Researcher for the Australian Council for Educational Research Cornelius Riordan found that most boys and girls who attend single-sex catholic schools were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, yet these students obtained better grades t han coed students (Single- Sex). This backs the study done by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, that socioeconomic background does not play a major role on a students grades as thought by many people who oppose single-sex schools.Riordan also found that students in these catholic schools view learning in a more dictatorial manner which ould be another reason as to why students in single-sex schools do much better than coed students. In another study conducted in Jamaica by Marlene Hamilton found that students attending single-sex schools out preformed students in coed schools in almost every subject tested which confirmed the research done in Australia, South Korea, England, and America (Single-Sex). With many studies on students all over the world being reconciled, it proves that single-sex schools are better for a students education.Not only do single-sex schools benefit a students education, but their overall focus and character as well. At Thurgood Marshall Elemen tary School in Seattle, principle Benjamin Wright led the movement of the schools traditional coed classroom backing to single-sex classrooms. Before this transition he would address over thirty misbehaving children a day, eighty percent of which were boys. In regard to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the single-sex classrooms, there were on average one or two students sent to the office for misbehavior a day.The boys reading average rose to sixty-six percent while their writing average also went up to fifty-three percent (Single-Sex). All of this was done under the same teachers for boys and girls. At an inner-city high school in Montral who underwent the same type of transition also saw positive results. The number of students skipping class dropped by thirteen percent to Just seven percent. Fifteen percent more of students passed their final exams as opposed to before where sixty- five passed. Finally, the rate of students continuing their education in college dou bled what it used to be before the switch.With these consistent positive results, many schools will turn to the idea of following these footsteps and transition to single-sex schools or classrooms to benefit all students in their education and haracter. Although segregating students by gender has its positive results, it also has negative results in students psychologically and socially. New York Times writer Tamar Lewin stresses the strongest argument against single-sex education is that it reduces boys and girls opportunities to work together, and reinforces sex stereotypes (Lewinl).By splitting the two genders apart, students will not know how to properly work together or even communicate with one another. According to the American Psychological Association, school is preparation for the freehanded life and how oys and girls learn to interact will dictate relationships formed in the workplace (Saunders). As students are separated by gender, they miss vital chances to work with o ne another and build important social skills. By segregating students, they are missing out on learning those very skills needed outside of school such as an engineering firm where thoughts from multiple engineers take place.A female engineer who spent her entire school life including college in single-sex classes whitethorn feel a bit more uncomfortable speaking out her ideas to the male engineers. Not only oes this affect people in the work place, it affects their personal relationships as well, for example, a male trying to meet women to date, becomes much more difficult. If he has spent little or no time communicating with the opposite sex, he may feel shy or awkward. Elizabeth Danish explains Part of the idea of going to school is to prepare your child for real life when they leave. in that location is no doubt that the real world is mixed gender rather than single sex and so that means that the best way to do this would be to emulate that in school. Further, learning to talk to members of he opposite sex is a very important skill and one that can leave you at a significant disadvantage if youve never had a chance to practice. By experimenting with relationships now when things are less serious, your child will be better at managing and finding them when they leave (Danish). She also believes that in coed schools students become more understanding of each other and are more open minded of new conditions.Danish then suggests that building a feminine side to men could help them better understand girls and reduce the changes of sexism in schools. The problem with some single-sex schools is that he ideas of men are better than girls or in some cases women are better than men begins to circulate and lowers the self-confidence and self-esteem of some students. Another problem go about single-sex classrooms is lack of trained teachers to What could be done to better benefit students in single-sex schools is to have the two genders attend the same school in dif ferent buildings.With this, students could be integrated during lunch hours and for elementary schools even recess. This way the two genders can socialize with one another and not be completely segregated passim all twelve years of school. This socialization can help prepare boys and girls for life outside and after high school in both work life and relationships with one another. In regards to single-sex classrooms, studies show how boys are encouraged or more engaged in learning subjects can be implemented in teaching methods for specifically boys and vice versa for girls.With this, teachers can know what method of teaching works better so they can use it only for boys and only for girls. The numbers of single-sex schools have been on the rise in the past fifteen years and will continue to go up because they are proving to better benefit students education and personality. However, many advocates believe that the psychological and sociological downsides to this form of education are harmful to students and outweigh the positives.