According to my personal experience, based on the fact I saw, I think, single-sex schools are inferior to traditional coeducation schools. Even though I used to think that traditional coeducation is better, and it is able to provide opportunities for girls and boys to communicate and exchange ideas. I argue that teaching students separately is detrimental, and even harmful to students’ mind and the devolvement of physiology. However, while I was doing some research I was shocked by the results.
Many people disagree about the benefit of same sec school, because these people do not realize the difference between males and females, and neglect the benefits about the single sex education. In fact, many results show that girls and boys are different from each other. Then I realized why I always found girls did better in writing and reading while boys did better in math and science. So many statistics I found proved that students in single gender schools could get better grades and better performance. Besides, single gender schools also can protect the children in many other ways.
Therefore, changed my opinion into the idea that single sex education. It’s better for them to be in single gender classes because they do have some differences. The benefits can be concluded in many ways, then there is no doubt that the students in single gender schools can get higher grades. If single gender schools are not as good as traditional co-education schools, then why there are still so many parents spend much more money to send their children to single gender schools? First of all, we should think about what are the benefits can be provided to those boys and girls.
To find the benefits for students of single gender schools, we should start from the differences between boys and girls. According to the research I did, I got some new information that changed my opinion. According to “Gender Differences in the Sequence of Brain Development” by Leonard Sax: “The most profound difference between girls and boys is not in any brain structure parse, but rather in the sequence of development of the various brain regions. The different regions of the brain develop in a different sequence in girls compared with boys” This research focuses on the development of the children.
From this research, we learned that child’s brain development depends on the sex and the age. Beside boys and girls develop in different time. So the difference of the development of the brain between girls and boys is totally different. Just like Douglas said: “Our findings which suggest that language processing is more sensory in boys and more abstract in girls could have major implications for teaching children and even provide support for advocates of single sex classrooms. ” So we can see the different gender class can provide different benefits to both boys and girls because of their differences.
Another reason that I want to show why it’s better for boys and girls in single gender schools is that single gender schools have more benefits for each sex especially for girls because the girls need more protections than boys. The single sex school can give girls more protection. As NASSPE,which is called National Association Single Sex public Education, said: “At a single-sex school, though, even if they do have a boyfriend, her social network at school is likely to be separate from her boyfriend’s group of friends, so it’s easier to say no.
She has more autonomy over her sexual decision-making. It’s easier to contemplate life without the boyfriend. ” So according to this, we can learn that single gender schools can protect students in many ways. Such as rape harassment and abuse of the female students. Otherwise there is greater possibility that some females. Students will have unwanted pregnancy in traditional coeducation school than the single sex schools. In addition, single gender schools also have some benefits for boys. At boys’ schools, according to Dr.
Sax shows in “Boys Adrift”: “Boys’ schools and all-boys classroom have a natural advantage, because they teach the curriculum in ways that motivate boys to learn. ” As we can see, boys and girls are different, and there do have some benefits from the single gender classes for boys. Therefore, what’s the fact about the single gender classes affected on the grades? According to Dr. Beverly L. Hall, Byron Barnes released a 148-page report in September 2005. This report review discovered pleasing results for single-gender schools. Hundreds of quantitative and qualitative studies were looked at for this report.
Therefore, it is manifest that the students in the single- gender schools study harder than that in traditional schools. Moreover, single gender schools allow students to have passions on their own studies, and make every effort to achieve higher goals. And the research showed “Boys and girls were more likely to be enrolled in higher levels of math and Science classes while attending single-gender schools. ” From this result, based on the statistics we have, we can learn that the single gender schools improve boys’ and girls’ grades a lot.
To compare the grades from single gender schools with the grades from coeducation schools, The NASSPE indicated that a recent report from NBC Nightly News found a research showed the students in single gender school can get higher scored. It showed a reported about the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test), that compare the scores from the boys and girls in single gender schools and the coeducation schools. Percentages of students are scoring higher on the FCAT boys in coed classes. They assert that both boys and girls get more than 20% scored proficient improvement.
From the research, we can learn that half the boys in the mixed sex classrooms scored higher on the FCAT, compared with 85% of boys in the single gender classes. The research is in based on the same size of class and teaching the same program. From this research, we realized that the students in single gender schools scored more than those in traditional coeducation schools. We can presume that if coeducation schools are better than single gender schools, then how can average of the grade from both two kind schools show the students in single gender schools can do better than traditional coeducation schools.
To sum up, all these statistics show single gender schools can make students get better grades. Even though the single gender schools have a lot of benefits and can help students get higher grades, whether parents should or should not send their children to single gender schools are still very controversial. As the NASSPE accounted that: Until 2010, there are more than 520 public single gender schools across the United States. Considering these statistics, we can learn that with the private single gender schools, there are thousands of single sex schools in the United States.
In Cincinnati, there are at least 9 single gender schools. Even with the increasing number of the single gender schools, there still are many people cast doubt about the necessary of the existence of single gender schools. Lots of experts think the students in coeducation schools can be more confident, and both boys and girls can influence each other in many ways. They also think co-education schools can provide students a better environment to achieve their goals. According to The Cathedral School“ The ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, said that Co-education creates a feeling of comradeship.
He advocated teaching of both the male and female sexes in the same institution without showing any discrimination in imparting education. ” ( The Cathedral School, 2011) However, what kind of reasons make these people think single gender schools are not as good as traditional coeducation schools? We can look over some evidence from the persons who hold the opposite opinion. According to Guy McLean, David Howie, and Catherine Raafluab(2006): “Students attending co-education schools feel more confident expressing their views in the presence of opposite-sex peers.
Co-education school students are more likely than students of single-sex schools to agree that their peers respect members of the opposite sex. Also co-education schools are also a strong foundation for future success. (5)” Based on the research from The Benefits of the Co-educational Environment, I don’t agree with it. The only reason that they think traditional coeducation schools is better than single gender school is that they ignored the benefits of single gender school. These people’s opinions might seem to be true.
As we know, most of single gender schools are private schools, and they need a lot of capital to support their schools. So if someone who wants to send their children to single gender school they should pay more money on the tuition fees. That is a large sum of money. I strongly agree with this idea. Because I was a student in coeducation school, I know what happen to the boys and girls. Most the boys don’t like to write and read. On the contrary, girls always don’t like math and science. It’s easy to find out why boys and girls learn things differently from the difference between brain developments.
Also before I did the research, I had never known the students in single gender schools can get higher grades than those in traditional coeducation schools. So as I can tell, it is true that coeducation schools have their benefits. However, all those truths I gave above, the differences between boys and girls and the benefits for children, the higher score they got, prove that single gender schools are better than traditional coeducation school.
Works Cited
- Advantages of Co-education (2011) The Cathedral School. http://www. cathedral-school. co. uk/co-education. html
- Boys Adrift”(2007) Leonard Sax, M. D. Gender differences in language are biological. (2008) USA Today. http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2757_136/ai_n27911445/
- Hall, Beverly; Barnes. (2007) Concept for the Establishment of Two Single-Gender Secondary Schools. http://www. atlantapublicschools. us/cms/lib/GA01000924/Centricity/Domain/109/SGpresentationweb0607. ppt
- McLean; Howie; Raafluab. (2006) The Benefits of the Co-educational Environment http://www. ridleycollege. com/ftpimages/180/download/download_group4184_id171639. pdf”d171639. pdf
- NASSPE (n. ). About NAPPSE. 2011,from http://www. singlesexschools. org/home-nasspe. htm
- NASSPE (2009) Advantages for Girls. http://www. singlesexschools. org/research-forgirls. htm
- NASSPE (2009) What’ s happening to boys? http://www. singlesexschools. org/research-forboys. htm
- NASSPE (2009) Single-Sex vs. Coed: The Evidence. http://www. singlesexschools. org/research-singlesexvscoed. htm
- NASSPE (2009) Learning Style Differences. http://www. singlesexschools. org/research-learning. htm
- NASSPE (2009) Brain differences. http://www. singlesexschools. org/research-brain. tm
