Single-Sex Education

6 Pages 1395 Words

Learning Structure

Throughout history and even today, single-sex education is a prestigious mark of social status reserved for the elite class. Despite the obvious mark of high social status, there is a controversy among educators and parents. Many educators support the claim that coeducation is the best method and should be carefully improved to offer higher quality education. However, those that favor single-sex education claim it is an effective method to eliminate sexual distractions and intimidation influenced by gender differences. These two perspectives scratch at the true issue at hand: how to provide an appropriate education for girls and boys as they move through adolescence toward adulthood. High quality education is offered when proper resources, experienced educators, and a healthy academic environment are forged together. Therefore, single-sex education will not necessarily improve the learning environment.
At coeducational schools, students are able to share their diverse perspectives and talents with those of the opposite sex. The various perspectives help to introduce and educate students of different methods. In Sean McCollum's article, a male student states, "guys and girls bring diverse viewpoints to different subjects. Girls might have a very different take than the boys, say, on [author] Virginia Woolf, and it might challenge my way of thinking. Gender diversity is just as important as racial diversity. If you remove the different perspectives [of gender], you're losing a section of diversity - a big one" (18). Throughout elementary school, I observed that the two sexes have different academic trends. Boys are generally more athletic, and better at mathematics and science. Females, on the other hand, are more composed and stronger in reading, spelling and other literary disciplines. Allowing the two generally different groups to work together in a coeducational setting will improve the overall grades...