Considering the many challenges facing schools in southeast Seattle, some have suggested that educating girls and boys separately may help fix our public schools, others say the concept simply reinforces outmoded gender stereotypes.What do you think?
From Newsweek:
If you thought charter schools and ending teacher tenure were controversial fixes for the American school system, see what happens you bring up the idea of educating boys and girls separately. With male academic achievement declining by almost every measure, and their scores possibly dragging down national averages, administrators are taking a fresh look at same-sex classrooms and the concept that boys and girls might do better when they’re apart. Why is it such a hot-button topic? Well, because it goes against 30 years of thinking, and smacks of “separate but equal” education.
The advocates of the single-sex approach are surprising, as are the foes. Among many liberal thinkers, gender segregation sounds like regressing to a time when girls were educated in finishing schools and had access to neither the number, nor caliber of schools available to boys. Plus, the notion that boys and girls learn differently—touted by some as the primary rational for gender separation—goes against one of feminism’s (at least the 1970s version) main messages. To say that there is something inherently different between boys and girls is, for many, tantamount to saying that women are the weaker sex.
For these reasons, Democratic politicians spent decades fighting vehemently against loosening legislation to allow public schools to offer same-sex classes. But in 2001, Sen. Hillary Clinton linked the issue to class—citing an unfairness in the fact that single-sex education is available as a choice only to those who can afford private-school tuition. Clinton, a graduate of all-women’s Wellesley College, joined forces with Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to successfully bring about legislative change. Since then, the number of public schools offering same-sex classes has grown from 11 to 540—still a relatively small figure in the big picture, but a jump of more than 4,000 percent nonetheless. Read more.
Rainier Beach High School has faced numerous challenges over the years. Photo/do communications
Related:
- Urban League Partners With Rainier Beach HS to Help Athletes Thrive (6/17/10)
- Rainier Beach High to Get Second Principal (1/11/10)
- Rainier Beach High School Counselor Indicted on Drug Charges (12/11/09)
- SPS Community Blog Raising Money to Buy Textbooks for Rainier Beach High (11/13/09)
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