Should Girls and Boys Attend the Same Schools? (Essay Sample)

Should Girls and Boys Attend the Same Schools?
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Introduction
Whether or not boys and girls should be allowed to attend separate schools has been subject to a heated debate over the recent years. There are those who believe that separating girls from boys in learning institutions has profound benefits on the whole learning set up. However, opponents of the idea are of the feeling that gender integration is extremely important during development and separating girls from boys will have far reaching implications on development. Going by the said arguments, there is a lot of documented evidence in social sciences that indicate the benefits of having both boys and girls attend the same schools. The following research will examine whether boys and girls should attend separate schools or they should be allowed to attend the same school.
Argument for Separation of Boys and Girls in Schools
Current research indicates that boys and girls have different ways of learning in a classroom setting. Girls are perceived to be more of passive learners while boys are considered as active learners. Passive learners excel in audio-visual learning in the classroom while active learners excel in learning after practically doing things. In such a classroom setting, the tutor’s manner of teaching has an overall influence on student performance. If a tutor uses a lot of visual diagrams as learning models, girls would excel more in such a class. On the other hand, boys would excel more if more practical lessons are considered by the tutor. This argument is meant to reinforce the idea that a cross-gender classroom setting is responsible for the skewed performance by various students. According to Booth & Nolen, these explanations explain why girls excel more in languages and humanities but are terrible in active languages such as arithmetic and pure sciences (2012). The implications of skewed performance by students are felt not only at the classroom level but the entire institutional level. If girls perform better in the classroom, boys often feel intimated amidst a feeling of insubordination against their female counterparts. Girls on the other hand are less likely to select some subjects based on the assumption that boys perform better in particular subjects.
There are institutions that have adopted a single-gender learning model where students of either gender make up for the entire school population. On the other hand, some schools have maintained a cross-gender culture aimed at giving students a better learning environment through gender integration. If asked, both sets of schools would have their reasons as to why they prefer a certain gender-based model in learning. Marsh (1989) is of the view that there are social, cultural and economic factors that influence learning models in many institutions across the world. However, single-sex institutions are easy to control and run. Mixed-gender schools are often characterized by fight, hostility and endless squabbles among peers trying to outdo each other. Such schools are also a conduit to pre-marital sex due to peer pressure. However, it easier to control the behavior of students in a single-sex institution since the common rules introduced by the school applies to everyone.
Boys and girls should be separated in schools to allow for specialization. Traditionally, there are those courses that boy excel in that girls find them challenging. Girls often have a challenge in technical courses. It is therefore meaningless to insist on bridging the gender gap in such courses. There are also courses that are considered as feminist. This perception especially from male students is permanent. Having boys take such courses under some form of duress would elicit even more resistance from the male students who would otherwise feel that their female counterparts are unfairly favored by the course. Such courses include social sciences and women studies.
Argument against Separation of Boys and Girls in Schools
Separating girls from boys in schools allows for the social stereotype that is a common challenge in the overall coexistence of people in modern society. In previous years, single sex schools have become increasingly popular due to their low cost of maintenance. In addition, single sex schools are seen as a way of encouraging both boys and girls ambitions in courses that are otherwise perceived to belong to a specific gender. However, these benefits of single sex schools are short-lived. In actual sense, single-sex schools promote the harmful stereotype that continues that has taken a toll in the modern society. From a short-term approach, single sex schools are seen as encouraging girls to perform better in mathematics and pure science by giving them an environment where boys are not present to act as a source of intimidation.
On the other hand, boys in single-sex schools operate in an environment where there is no factor of intimidation in subjects considered to be feminist. This hypothesis might not be as straightforward as it looks. In the long-run, single sex schools reinforce the belief that a specific gender is superior in certain areas of learning. Another theory against single-sex schools is drawn from a sociological perspective that supports gender integration in learning institutions. According to Goodman, gender integration is important in a child’s development (1965). By separating boys and girls in schools, we raise a generation of people who are unaware of the opposite gender’s likes, interests and way of life.
Most importantly, the same different gender will at one point co-exist in later years thus creating a co-existence crisis. It might be true that students in single-sex schools perform better than their counterparts in a multi-gender learning setting. However, the focus on performance is ill-informed. Learning institutions should focus on the overall development of the students to become adults. In the professional sector for example, competition for the available career options is not based on a specific gender. Ultimately, students of both genders will compete for the available career options after school. It is therefore prudent to teach such students to compete against each other from the beginning. This is so that each student across both genders understands what he/she excels in. By understanding areas of excellence helps the students make better career choices that are not driven by baseless inspiration that a certain gender excels in a specific career.
Long-term Solutions to Children Performance
As stated by Kenway (1998), the society has come of age regarding how boys and girls exist in a multi-cultural society. If indeed it is true that students in single-sex institu...