Our world is much more diversified than ever before. The world appears far more colorful and multifarious, and fairly balanced in terms of rights associated with genders. As generations proceed and advance with time, women and men are becoming fairly balanced on the scale of equality and have far more privileges than they did in history.
On that account, sex-segregated schools are needless and a supplementary effort for educational facilities. On top of that, it drives further concerns such as students remaining unprepared to confront the variety of genders beyond school premises, reduces the diversity within the school, and promotes genderism in students.
To commence, single-sex schools do not prepare students for their future- when they will eventually need to interact with all genders especially at work, and express themselves in personal relationships.
Firstly, when a child spends a majority of their time with the same kinds of people, they can become timorous or uncomfortable around others who may be different, which does not attempt to prepare them for gender-integrated workplaces.
Elle Hunt; a freelance journalist, posted an article on The Guardian, referring to a study by Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin–Madison; she states that “after graduation, virtually everyone will work for and with females and males – students need to learn mutual respect and the social skills of interacting.”
At a premature age in life, children should be taught how to mix and co-exist with all kinds of people, to be able to cope with social situations in their future. By dissociating two genders, schools could potentially decrease their students’ comfortability in interacting with the opposing gender, which makes communicating with, for instance, their co-workers a daily challenge. Furthermore, the disconnection of genders can impact their lives after their education years.
According to an article by Richard Garner on Independent News, “boys taught in single-sex schools are more likely to be divorced or separated from their partner than those who attended a mixed school by their early 40s”.The barrier between boys and girls in their childhood can lead to an inconvenient relationship between both sexes in their adulthood, and induce problems at the time of marriage.
Therefore, dividing students by their gender fails to establish their confidence and comfortability with people beyond their classroom in terms of future professions and relationships, affecting their lives in the long run.
Moreover, a school with a solitary gender decreases the overall abilities within the class because boys and girls have different strengths and talents, and both groups benefit and learn from one another. Firstly, sex-segregated schools lower skills and strength within the school. An article by The York School states that “co-education is the best preparation for students to take on real-life, (…) bringing together students of every background creates a culture of competence, creativity, and compassion”.
Every individual is unique in a distinct way; boys and girls are superior in different aspects. Therefore, in co-education, these various talents are accumulated, which benefits the overall performance of the classroom as well as the school. Furthermore, boys and girls learn and comprehend together. Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, posted an article on Independent, explaining how “boys learn better when they are with girls and they actually learn to get on better”.
This displays how both genders have their own specialties and both sides benefit from one another. Therefore, collaborative learning diversifies schools in terms of abilities and aptitudes in their learning environment, and it is essential and preferable for students to learn not only with their own but with the opposite gender as well.
Finally, the segregation of genders in education promotes gender discrimination as separate education is unequal, and kids favor the ones similar to them while developing judgment for unique individuals. Firstly, this method is considered unfair and uneven. A ruling in Brown v. The Board of Education by the Supreme Court confirmed that union works best for bringing down discrimination in education.
The Supreme Court affirmed that ‘separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.’ The court also said “separating and emphasizing differences between groups of people breeds stereotyping and discrimination”. Students attending gender-based schools means a disadvantage for those boys and girls because they may not receive fair educational opportunities, which drives sexism.
Secondly, gender-based education develops criticism in students, as they begin to judge others and honor people they can compare to. In a research conducted by Rebecca Bigler at the University of Texas and Lynn Liben, posted on The Conversation, it is revealed that (…) children are especially susceptible to feelings of favoritism about members of their group, and to prejudice against those in contrasting groups. The effect on children is the same whether adults divide them by race, gender or even t-shirt color”.
As the minds of children are under progression and still developing, they can quickly learn new concepts and can easily be influenced by the people around them, which is why gender segregation in schools can have a poor influence on students. Therefore, genderism can also be a disadvantage of a school with a sole gender, as it is considered unequal and children develop feelings of favoritism.
To conclude, sex-divided schools do not favor students in many aspects, including that it makes no attempt to prepare students to confront the real world, reduces diversity and abilities in the school and classroom, and it contributes to genderism.
Gender-based schools contradict the fact that equality and rights are rising higher with time. Our communities, workplaces, public places, nor our own homes are sex-segregated, thus, having single-gender learning environments is rather needless than beneficial.
Work Cited:
- Hunt, Elle. “Single-Sex Schools Offer No Advantages and Feed Stereotypes, Psychologists Told.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Sept. 2016, Retrieved September 24, 19, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/14/single-sex-schools-offer-no-advantages-and-feed-stereotypes-psychologists-told.
- “Why Single-Sex Schools Are Bad for Your Health (If You’re a Boy).” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 28 Nov. 2011, Retrieved September 24, 19, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/why-single-sex-schools-are-bad-for-your-health-if-youre-a-boy-1831636.html.
- York School. “Co-Education: the Benefits of Diversity.” The York School Blog, 14 June 2016, Retrieved September 26, 19, https://blogs.yorkschool.com/connect/2015/11/09/co-education-benefits-diversity/.
- York School. “Co-Education: the Benefits of Diversity.” The York School Blog, 14 June 2016, Retrieved September 26, 19, https://blogs.yorkschool.com/connect/2015/11/09/co-education-benefits-diversity/.
