9 de September del 2022
7 arguments in favor of the New Single-Sex Education
The direct experience that I have been able to verify in schools that have opted for this pedagogical model, allows me to offer a first answer as per the reason for the New Single-Sex Education: it is successful, diverse, both in public schools and private, with or without religion
In addition, the fact that it personalizes education and promotes equality are other arguments in favor of the New Single-Sex Education. All thanks to the school climate that is created and to the fact that it allows us to better face some very current problems of our youngsters, such as overcoming the stereotypes of boys and girls.
The arguments in favor of the New Single-Sex Education
1. School Climate
One of the main concerns for parents and teachers is peer pressure and bullying.
The school climate of New Single-Sex Education schools is free from conventions and pressures that often lead to school failure or low self-esteem. In female schools, this feeling of pressure from peers is reduced from 21% to 1%. A little-known fact is that the double of boys repeats a school year in comparison with girls, and 3 out 4 disciplinary records belong to boys. In male schools, disciplinary records and falling behind are dramatically reduced.
2. Relationship between students
In the Anglo-Saxon world, Brotherhood and Sisterhood are called the deep relationship that is forged between students, the result of day to day in which each one can show himself as he is. A classroom designed for one gender’s learning style encourages greater collaboration among students and teaches valuable teamwork skills. Students make friendships and form bonds that can last a lifetime, as members of the alumni association of those schools can attest.
It is very interesting to hear from the 3-time Oscar winner and 21-time nominee; Meryl Streep her great school experience with the change to a school for girls (see from min. 11 and 20 ” and following). As she herself says, it is the moment in her life when she stopped acting to please and was able to show herself as she was.
3. Equal opportunities
We’re still far from achieving equal opportunities in school. Data provided by OCDE in the PISA reports confirm that a breach continues to exist between the results that boys en girls achieve in some subjects.
In general, boys get better results in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), but girls lead in the language skills development by one year. In single-sex schools, the results in these areas improve for boys and girls and tends to equal.
The same happens for arts and sports. Few boys participate in drama activities, singing or dancing, but amazing musicals and choirs can be found in boys’ schools. It’s also remarkable how popular competitive sports are in girls’ schools.
Another interesting fact is that girls from single-sex schools choose STEM careers three more times than others.
4. Female leadership
A study by Linda Sax, from the University of UCLA, analyzes how female leadership is much higher in the United States among women who come from single-sex schools than from mixed ones. One might think that it is due to the elitism of the schools where they studied, but of those schools only 7% are Single-Sex, while 93% are mixed.
It is interesting to know some examples of leadership coming from girls’ schools such as Nancy Pelosi, President of the United States House of Representatives; Sally Ride, the first woman to travel into space; Madeleine Albright, the first female Secretary of State; Drew Gilpin Faust, the only female president of Harvard University; Condoleezza Rice, the first woman responsible for national security or Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State and first woman candidate for the Presidency of the country…
5. Overcome the social gap
It was precisely Hillary Clinton who authorized the first public schools of the New Single-Sex Education in the neighborhoods with the highest rate of school failure such as the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, State Islands… in the case of boys’ schools it was with David Banks, who founded Eagle Academy with the following results: 89% of graduating students vs. 30% in coeducational schools and more than 24,000 students who have succeeded in bridging the gap of race and neighborhood. The same goes for The Young Women’s Leadership School and its female students.
6. Break stereotypes
In the only-boys schools, which opt for the New Single-Sex Education model, home skills are worked on (development of skills to learn how to manage domestic affairs).
In the same way that leadership is worked on in only-women’s schools, boys-schools help to better understand that domestic affairs are not associated with the female sex, because there are no “things for boys” and “things for girls.” So naturally the boys have a cooking class, they clean the tables, sweep the floors, etc.
7. Offer positive adult role models
Speaking with David Banks, Chancellor of the New York City Schools, he explained to me that the big problem in these disadvantaged neighborhoods is Fatherless: most of the fathers were either in prison or seriously addicted or had abandoned the family home. Currently, this situation, for other reasons, also occurs in France, Iceland, Sweden -more than 50%- and the United States -close to 50%-.
This lack of masculine references for boys is, in the words of David Banks, one of the causes of the resounding masculine failure that, with his New Single-Sex Education schools, he has managed to turn around with great success. How has he done it? Looking for male mentors who serve as references for the transition from child and adolescent to adult. The Young Women’s Leadership School and its female mentors have done the same for their students.
If what we are looking for is equal opportunities, improving the school climate, personalizing education to the maximum and improving school performance, it seems to me that the New Single-Sex Education model enhances and facilitates it.
Miguel Dionis
mdionis@viaro.org