“Did you know America ranks the lowest in education but the highest in drug use? It's nice to be number one, but we can fix that. All we need to do is start the war on education. If it's anywhere near as successful as our war on drugs, in no time we'll all be hooked on phonics” -Leighann (Lord) Leighamm Lord is a comedian, but when it comes to the education of children, she takes it very seriously and it is not so much a joke to her. Children are the future, and giving them the best education available is crucial to the future. Making decisions in the educational system would not only better the future, but the children’s future. These changes of segregating classrooms, will give the children a better working environment, to improve test scores, and academic advancements. Research shows that segregating classrooms would be a great step to a successful future; however, conflicting arguments to the negative and positive impacts of segregating classrooms to consider.
Sending a child to a gender based school, is a very big decision to make. The decision is so big, that looking at what research has to say about the topic could alter one’s decision to send their child to a gender based school. “Educators must apply different approaches in teaching make, and female students” (Gurian). This is said by Gurian, because he also believes that boys and girls learn differently. “Social pressures can be gentler and your child can learn at his own pace” (Kennedy).
Taking on another approach to teaching boys and girls will be on the right track to improving behavior in children. According to The Goodman Research Group, “88% of students say they would repeat their experience, 83% say they are better prepared for college, and 13% intended t...
... middle of paper ...
...hers.html>.
Hampherd, Kennedy “ NYT Article: Kennedy Hampherd by Gender- Based Double Standard”
HUFFINGTONPOST.com. 2010. Time Magazine. 16 December 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/30/inyti-article-kennedy-ham_n_154257.html
Mead, Sara “Gender-Based Education” KAYSTEIGER.blogspot.com 2011
Blogger. 3 January 2011
Moir, A., Jessel, D. “Brain Sex: The real difference between men & women.” WETEACHWELEARN.net
2010 Twitter. 22 December 2010
Sax, Leonard “The Problem with Gender-Based Education” NEWAMERICA.net 2010
The American Strategist. 20 December 2010
There is a long history of single-sex schooling, in which males and females attend specific classes or schools only with members of their same sex. This separation of genders may be done for educational purposes or in combination with other factors, such as social interactions that occur between male and female students. There is some support for the idea that single-sex schooling can be beneficial, especially for outcomes related to academic achievement and more positive academic aspirations (Lee, 2008). Although, there are many benefits of children attending single-sex schools, evidence shows that sex segregation can also gender stereotyping and legitimizes institutional sexism (Kennedy, 2000).
Sadker, Myra, David Sadker, and Susan Klein. "The Issue of Gender in Elementary and Secondary Education." Review of Research in Education 17 (1991): 269. JSTOR. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.
“It is early indeed that children show an awareness of the message that… females are generally less interesting and important than males are… The (often inadvertent) bearers of this message include parents, peers, and teachers.” (Lips, 1979, p. 128.) The absence of gender equity can be damaging to both males and females. Surprisingly most of the teachers and administrators are unaware of this problem. Organizations such as the American Association of University Women (“Gender equity,” 2003.) strive to create programs that will improve equality within schools. The purpose of this research paper is to identify gender equity issues in the classroom and explore strategies for teachers to incorporate equitable perspectives into the curriculum.
Single-gender schools can helps students achieve a better education as well as a better learning environment. This form of educational institution helps students to focus on their academics without the distractions of the other gender. Historical data from Harvard University and other institutions, suggests that single-gender schools are more beneficial to a students’ education than those of co-educational schools. (David Tyack and Elizabeth Hanslot, pg.14) Co-educational schools distract students from getting the most out of their education. The students are being distracted by the other gender, due to examples such as, sexual harassment and the inappropriate appearance and dress code of students. Single-gender schools can help teachers to gear their instruction to a specific gender, rather than generalizing it to please both genders. While co-educational schools can assist students to be interactive with the other gender, single-gender schools can be more beneficial towards a students’ education.
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
Everyone has an opinion on the learning styles of girls and boys. Lawmakers, educators, parents, and community leaders all desire to see students succeed in the academic arena and gender schooling is on the rise in public, private, charter and magnet schools. Consequently, many parents believe single-sex classes are beneficial to learning because students are free of distractions from members of the opposite sex. Single sex classes enhance opportunities for the development and refinement of leadership skills. Students are free to compete more aggressively on a single gender competitive playing field with an abandonment of prejudice and disregard for traditional stereotypical male/female identity roles. Will the implementation of
Women and gender studies contribute greatly to our understanding of the social and cultural world we inhabit. Studying the complex issues of this field has instituted many key insights. Two major insights that positively affected our society are the awareness through learning and through this awareness activism that can ensue.
The second article, Examination of early childhood practitioners’ general perception of gender differences in young children, suggests that the research indicates the stereotypical perception of children’s gender differences is existed in early childhood teacher’s verbal expression (Hyun & Tyler, 2000). The research has collected data and responses for several topics including “Frequently Mentioned Descriptive Words by Gender”, “Words by Gender that May Reflect ‘Constructive’ and Active Learner Characteristics” (Hyun & Tyler, 2000). The results of the data collection have shown that gender bias is identified in early childhood teachers’ perception and verbalisation in terms of children’s characteristics, learning styles and classroom interaction (Hyun & Tyler, 2000). For example, words used to describe boy’s group learning style including “active, builders, challenging”, whereas girls are described as “cooperative, creative, curious” (Hyun & Tyler, 2000). Although learning styles and learning abilities are largely determined by the biological sex differences, how they respond to children with different genders would influence how children perceive their gender and their postnatal development of learning. When boys are perceived to be more cable than girls, teachers are very likely to have higher exceptions on boys and design considered developmentally appropriate activities for them instead of providing them the same materials as girls’. Consequently, the existing boys’ social dominance may be further supported and girls may suffer from the unfair perception that “they are passive learners in some extent” so they are dependent and need more help from teachers (Hyun & Tyler,
When people think of school classrooms, their first thought is of boys and girls together as a group of students. However, educational experts are now questioning whether it would be more beneficial for each gender, of all ages, to attend single-gender schools. Even though some experts are pro single-gender classrooms, there are others who are against this type of schooling.
Although there are many advantages of single-gender schooling, there are just as many disadvantages. Many researchers found single-sex schooling generates disrespect for the opposite sex. When sexes are separated, they question the worth of one gender over another. For instance, when student get a job, they may feel disdain for the opposite gender’s work. Single-sex classes do not provide students with necessary experience in the mixed-gender environment that is typical in a workplace. Student also miss opportunities to work together and develop vital social skills need for the future. Single-sex classes make exclusion of the opposite gender acceptable. Outside of school, the world is coed and students need the ability to interact with the opposite sex without being uncomfortable.
Same sex classes make it possible for teachers to cater to student needs in a more efficient way. In general boys benefit from hands on learning, but girls benefit from calm discussions (Mullins 3). Girls tend to doubt themselves while boys think they can do anything. Boys need to be brought down from the clouds while girls need to be dug out of a hole (Mullins 3). David Chadwell says, "Structure and connection are two key concepts when examining gender in the classroom. All students certainly need both, but it seems that teachers need to consider the issue of structure more with boys and the issue of connection more with girls" (7), and Kristen Stanberry’s research has shown, "Some research indicates that girls learn better when classroom temperature is warm, while boys perform better in cooler classrooms. If that's true, then the temperature in a single-sex classroom could be set to optimize the learning of either male or female students" (1). These observations further support the idea that same sex classrooms can cater to student’s...
Finally, there is no one sex school is going to be right for every student. There are many advantages and disadvantages mentioned in that essay before. But it's thought all over the world that the coeducation is preferred worldwide. About 90 % of schools all over the world are stuck to co-education. Mixed-sex education has achieved higher success rate. They also graduate students who are settled emotionally and able to deal with the real society. "There are not any dominant blessings for single-sex schools on academic grounds. Studies all over the world have failed to expose any major variations.'' - Academician Alan Smothers, director of education and employment analysis at the University of Buckingham 2011.
Women, Girls, Boys and Men today face a variety of different issues in contemporary american society. Many of the problems that they face are regarding gender and cultural issues. Today we say that both genders are equal but in reality they are really not. We have both girls and both falling behind in school because of these cultural issues. According to David Brooks article titled “Honor Code,” the reason why boys especially, are falling behind in education is because of the way the education system is set-up. He states that schools today proclaim that they are diverse, but in fact they have become “homogeneous,” they only cater to students who are “nurturing, collaborative, disciplined, neat, studious, industrious and ambitious.” He says that those who do not fit in with those categories are left behind, they become disconnected and eventually withdraw completely from their education. It has become a huge problem in the U.S, where colleges are lowering their admission standards just so they can admit more men. Mr. Brooks says the problems with boys is that they are naturally aggres...
The proponents of single-sex education argue that boys and girls have differing needs and that their styles of learning are different. Education which respects personal differences must take this into account. ( Mullins 124) Single-gender schools seem logical, than, to a public that accepts that gender differences are real and likes the idea of expanding choices. (Silv...
Leonard Sax notes an important distinction when describing quality schools. In an interview with Blah blah balh, he recites the positive effects of a single-sex school on the success of men and women. However, he admits the reality that various qualities of a school cannot determine the academic achievement of its students. As a simple example, he prefers sending a child to a good co-ed school than to a bad single-sex school. As his point demonstrates, and many other education reformers agree, modifying one aspect of a school will not yield results elsewhere. Consequently, there are solutions for any circumstances, but there is no single solution that ensures success.