Single-sex classrooms?

[QED]

This issue is actually being debated, and is in practice in some schools.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9285515/site/newsweek

Proponents say that boys and girls learn differently, and that this will help make sure that everyone gets the best education possible.
Opponents believe that the idea is discriminatory and will cause long-term problems for children.

Sound off! What do you think? Do the benefits outweigh the costs, or are there just too many problems with the plan? Post below.

[No friction dancing.]

Yeah, I heard about that before. Doesn't that bring up the whole Separate but Equal thing, too? I mean, if they are going to separate the students, that means that there will have to be separate classrooms, right? In the article it said that they took the desks out of the classrooms that the boys were in, because boys fidget more and that would give them the chance to exercise. I'm sure there are some people out there right now saying:
"Hmmm, boys fidget more. No attention span, eh? Then why don't we just put all the boys in a room with concrete walls and floors, and no windows. Then we obviously don't put anything in the room at all, because that way the boys won't get distracted. That way, they'll score an advanced instead of proficient on their MCAS!!! Hell yeah!"
Then another person will say something along the lines of:
"Yeah, and what about the girls? They already scored higher on their standardized testing. They deserve an award. I know! We can take all the money that we saved by not buying desks for the boys, and get the girls a speed boat!"

This is obviously an exaggeration, but what's to stop something like that from happening?

[Jesus]

I realize that this is at an elementary level (not a chem joke, don't laugh) but there is a chance it will spread. There is the catholic school principal. For example, my dog loves food. If I put him in a room with a steak and try to tell him to fetch I am wasting my time. The same is often said of teens/youths and the opposite sex. Mind you they use food to reward dogs for learning but lets not go there with that analogy for another few centuries. The point is, teens would learn better if they were seperated by gender, it is distracting. Furhtermore, teens would develope social problems if they were seperated by gender in this critical phase of their life. The same can be said of elementary school kids. If they can't learn together how can they be expected to work together, live together or raise children together. Also, moving back to the teens, if the seperation is based on hormonal distraction the question of homosexuals would be raised, and I don't know what the answer would be. Lets avoid this whole mess and not re-segregate the classrooms.

[bonoismygawd]

I ultimately feel that it's a bad idea, but i just have a specific case to delinate futhermore on...

in Jersey, in 7th grade, our health classes were seperated based on gender. girls got to learn about the facts of life and watch lovely movies depicting the "miracle of life" and other gory things, while in the guys class i can only assume they learned about it as well, minus the free tampax coupons. But then I came to Quaboag and was shocked to find out that health classes were with guys and sometimes taught by male teachers. It was all rather weird. Ofcourse, theres more to health than the reproductive process, but it think that having classrooms seperated by gender was easier for the topic, because the different concerns were addressed in a setting more comfortable for both sexes.
So i think that, although I wouldnt want it for most classes, because its pretty much a social step backwards to segregate the sexes, it can be deemed appropriate in some situations.

[No friction dancing.]

The whole point of health class is creating awkward situations. We might as well get rid of the class if they're going to separate it based on gender. What is going to happen when all those kids grow up? There will be some guy, and his girlfriend asks him to run into the store real quick and get some tampons. And he won't know what they are. That's awk. Do we really need to risk all that awkwardness, just to make people feel a little bit more comfortable?

[Shep]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm gonna have to agree that it is segregation. Some students learn differently from others, and different methods of teaching should be used. But that can be done within a single classroom in most cases, except for the few in which the issues present require separation in a special ed. class. JHDC is right, we all have to get used to working and learning together, breaking this up at the elementary and high school levels is just going to make things tougher for the students in the long run.

Here's the real kicker though- there's actually No Child Left Behind money for schools who want to try this. Check it out:

‘‘Subpart 3—Local Innovative Education
Programs
‘‘SEC. 5131. LOCAL USES OF FUNDS.
‘‘(a) INNOVATIVE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.—Funds made available
to local educational agencies under section 5112 shall be used
for innovative assistance programs, which may include any of the
following:
(1)...
...
‘‘(23) Programs to provide same-gender schools and classrooms
(consistent with applicable law).

This is from the actual text of the original act www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/107-110.pdf (good luck finding it again the pdf is 670 pages long )

[garyc7689]

screw seperate health class...i say it should go in the other direction and be more hands on. but thats just me. my love for girls has to intervene...and my love for akward classroom situations

[Jesus]

"No child left behind. AKA No School Left Standing" ~ Gould 3:16

[bonoismygawd]

stromthurman said:

"No child left behind. AKA No School Left Standing" ~ Gould 3:16

That was from my quotebook! cool beans.

[No friction dancing.]

garyc7689 said:

screw seperate health class...i say it should go in the other direction and be more hands on. but thats just me. my love for girls has to intervene...and my love for akward classroom situations

Maybe it's best that we have seperate health classes...
As far as the NCLB money being spent on it, that's better than using it for dry cleaning and chauffers for senators, isn't it? I'm thinking that they should just give the kids a certain amount of money when they are born, and they can spend it on education however they want. If you want to buy a speed boat instead of going to high school, fine with me. Bring back Social Darwinism. I'm tired of seeing kids waste everybody's money. If you don't want to be in school, then don't go. But don't make us pay for the books you don't use.