Single-Sex Schools

Single-Sex Schools

One sex school education is a practice of carrying education, where boy and girl students go to separate classes, buildings or schools. This practice was more common in the previous years, especially in higher and secondary education. However, currently, single-sex schools in various cultures are enhanced on the basis of tradition and religion; it is done in different parts of the country and in the entire world.

Literature Review

The approach of single-sex education is an old method, although it is gaining new motivation currently. This type of approach of education was common among a good number of private schools, but it is relatively a new approach for public schools. The foremost factor leading to this high growth of the single-sex schools movement is the natural differences in how boys and girls learn. Such movements have resulted into a hot debate that goes beyond pure academics one. This implies that issues, such as politics, civil rights, socioeconomic, and legal concerns, also come out.

Thesis statement

A good number of people have spent more time and resources trying to make advancement in the education quality of both sexes. Such movements began with the women manifestation movement, and continued throughout to the current day where a substantial number of legal and social difficulties to the equality of women have been removed. Thus, much progress has been made concerning the issue of single-sex schools. Therefore, in order to achieve equality among both genders, coeducation is the best way that is proposed currently. That is the reason why most of the schools, inclusive of both private and public, are implementing coeducation model, as it seems to give better results. However, some argue that boys and girls have different ways and styles of learning. For instance, the brain of a girl functions differently from that of a boy. Thus, this implies that by accepting to put a ban on single-sex schools, coeducation model will not probably work well for every child.

Research shows that some children perform better in a single-sex school. This is because the social pressures in a single-sex school can be gentler on the child hence excellent academic performance. Through a single-sex school, a child gets to grow at his or her own pace, which is advantageous especially for boys as they tend to mature later than girl-child do. Another argument against the banning of the single-sex schools is that, the teaching staff at such schools has a better understanding of how their students learn. Therefore, through such an understanding, they adapt their teaching styles to those particular needs.

In addition, single-sex schools are normally homogenous hence making it easier for the planning of events and activities as a person only has to consider boys or girls as the case may be. Single-sex schools allow children to be free in all things they choose to do. For instance, boys in a mixed school are less likely to do courses in arts or advanced academic courses in order to avoid being seen as nerds. On the other hand, girls in mixed schools may not take science and technology courses as a way of avoiding being seen as tomboys. Therefore, because of such reasons, single-sex schools are advancing once more as parents and even teachers realize that by allowing their daughters or sons to learn in his or her own personal way is a significantly vital consideration in choosing a school.

Arguments for the Topic

Single-sex schools should not be banned because they allow children to be themselves as they grow. For instance, boys have a tendency of softening their competitive edge and are more collaborative in a single-sex school. This is because they find it easier to adjust exceptionally fast without worrying what their counterparts will think. On the other hand, girls stop being shy, and thus start to take risks more often in a single-sex arrangement. For instance, they become more competitive; begin to embrace sports, such as field hockey and soccer, with gusto without fearing about looking like tomboys.

Academically, by teaching staff’s having a clear understanding of how to handle girls, they will feel comfortable more easily. This will make the girls explore technical subjects, like mathematics, advanced science, computers and technology, wood working among others. Whereas, boys in single-sex setting feel more willing and free to learn and take part in choirs, learn Latin and play orchestra than when in a mixed school setting. In most cases, children tend to put aside their stereotypical roles and actions when on their own (Schemo, 2006). Therefore, this is a clear indication that single-sex schools create a fascinating way of motivating children to be fearless, curious, and enthusiastic. Generally, it motivates children to be themselves.

Single-sex schools enables children to grow at their own pace without having much pressure from every sector to become adults before they are ready to do so. This is because the settings of the single-sex schools promote gentleness on children, they have controlled social outlets thus makes children feel free, and learn without much pressure from the environment hence improved socialization processes.

However, some sources argue that single-sex schools should be banned. They tend to claim that there is no better research that proves that single-sex schools enhance academic performance. According to the research, single-sex schools leads to poor or inadequate communication skills among students. For instance, learners at an all-girls school lack the day-to-day interaction with their male counterparts that occurs in a traditional classroom environment. Therefore, because of lack of proper interaction, such students are in most cases not well prepared to join the real world outside school settings. Children joining colleges, universities, and workforces after school have to know the way of socialization and how to deal with other people of the opposite sex. This implies that single-sex schools tend to delay socialization of girls and boys, which leads to issues between women and men in the future.

Furthermore, attending single-sex schools makes students avoid feminine activities. For instance, boys in a single school teach male learners to have awful behaviors concerning gender roles. Boys tend to avoid a number of activities either on purpose or subliminally because of the subjects being stereotyped as too feminine one. Therefore, in most cases, boys at single-sex schools may laugh at each other for tackling activities, such as theater and choir rather than sports. Single-sex schools also make the students not be in position of being innovative by avoiding particular courses. Single-sex schools results into incorrect learning styles (Halpern, et al., 2011). This is seen when teachers focus their lessons towards a specific learning style on a particular gender. It is, however, noted that there is no adequate information that could show the differences in the styles of learning of male and female to prove the significance of the single-sex education. Moreover, it is important to note that each girl and boy adheres to some gender role stereotypes. This is because some females are extremely aggressive, while some male are extremely shy and sensitive. According to some researchers, learning styles based on gender demonstrates their ineffectiveness, and may even cause destruction or impairment to learning for children who are not able to fit the mold.

Single-sex schools also make the students especially boys unable to understand women. For instance, the idea of all–boy school demonstrates that females are a distraction. This implies that boy-students studying in the single-sex schools may grow up with a negative attitude toward their female counterparts, and hence leading to serious misunderstandings in their future lives with the opposite sex. Statistics reveal that male students who attendant single-sex schools have higher chances of having marriage breakups, and depression as they grow old. These high rates of divorce and separation occur mainly because of lack of proper understanding between the husband, and the wife, which was caused by the single-sex schools.  

Conclusion

In conclusion, a sizeable number of the schools inclusive of both private and public are implementing mixed school approach because it leads to production of better results among students. However, some argue that boys and girls have different ways of learning. For instance, the brain of a girl functions differently from that of a boy. Thus, this implies that by accepting to put a ban on single-sex schools, coeducation model will not probably work well for every child. Other people argue that the type of the school attended is not an issue or a reason behind poor performance of students academically and socially. This is because there are other factors that also cause such poor results. These include lack of focus among students themselves, lack of enough learning materials, and lack of discipline among them. Therefore, as more efforts are put in correcting the issues of singe-sex education and mixed education approaches, other factors that lead to poor results should also be put into serious consideration. This is because there are a considerable number of individuals, who has went though both types of learning systems, and currently they are extremely successful in all aspects of their lives.