South Carolina PingAdd me to the list. / Remove me from the list.
Posted on 09/30/2007 4:08:15 PM PDT by decimon
COLUMBIA, S.C. - David Chadwell believes boys and girls can get through the awkward middle school years better when they're separated, learning in classrooms tailored to the learning styles of each gender.
As the country's first and only statewide coordinator of single-gender education, Chadwell is helping to make South Carolina a leader among public schools that offer such programs. About 70 schools offer the program now, and the goal is to have programs available to every child within five years, he said.
The theory is that by separating girls and boys — especially during middle school years typically marked by burgeoning hormones, self doubt and peer pressure — lessons can be more effective because they are in unique classroom settings.
For example, Chadwell explains, research shows boys don't hear as well as girls, so teachers of all-boys classes often use microphones. And because boys' attention spans tend to wander, incorporating movement in a lesson, like throwing a ball to a student when he's chosen to answer a question, can keep them focused.
In one recent boys' class, a group of gangly seventh-graders sprawled on the floor around a giant vinyl chart, using skateboard parts and measuring tape to learn pre-algebra. In a different school a few miles away, middle school girls interviewed each other, then turned their surveys about who's shy and who has dogs into fractions, decimals and percentages. Classical music played softly in the background.
Teachers in all-girls classes say they've learned to speak more softly, because their students can take yelling more personally than boys. And the educators gear their lessons to what students like: assigning action novels for boys to read or allowing girls to evaluate cosmetics for science projects.
"Boys like the activities. They like moving around. They like something dramatic," said Becky Smythe, who teaches all-boys and all-girls English and history at Hand Middle in Columbia, which launched single-gender classes this year in its sixth grade. The school plans to expand the program to seventh grade next year.
Chadwell, a Detroit native, had spent years in classrooms elsewhere, including teaching in a Quaker school outside Philadelphia and helping start a school in China, before he began teaching in South Carolina in 1999.
Five years later, aiming to create what he calls the "best middle school experience possible," Chadwell won permission from the state to launch South Carolina's first public, all-day single-sex program. Then came new state schools Superintendent Jim Rex's push to expand single-gender education to give parents more options within public schools, and Chadwell seemed perfect to head those efforts. He took the post in July.
"No other state has anyone remotely like David Chadwell," said Leonard Sax, founder of the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education and the author of "Why Gender Matters." "It's such an advantage to have a knowledgeable person who's led the format himself in a public school saying 'This works and this doesn't work.'"
"I'm hopeful we'll see more states following South Carolina's lead," Sax said.
Until last year, single-sex classes were allowed in only limited cases, such as gym classes and sex education classes. But the U.S. Education Department updated its rules and made it easier allow same-sex education anytime schools think it will improve students' achievement, expand the diversity of courses, or meet kids' individual needs.
At least 363 public schools across the country now offer single-sex educational opportunities, according to the single-sex education association.
Separating the sexes in public schools has mixed reviews.
Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, believes states should not advocate educational experiments. Segregating boys and girls could damage students if boys come away with sexist ideas of being superior, or if students are boxed into learning a certain way, she said. She also questioned whether single-gender programs' successes are due to good teachers and smaller classes, not sex segregation.
"There are ways to appeal to interests and learning styles and abilities without lumping people based on gender, which is not a good measure of anything," Gandy said. "At what point is it OK to make judgments of entire groups of human beings based on race or sex?"
David Belton, a Columbia parent, said he was leery of letting his daughter enroll in Dent Middle's inaugural single-gender program in 2004.
But his daughter, who then was entering sixth grade, insisted. Now he's glad she joined the program. He believes that because she wasn't self-conscious about boys' opinions of her, his daughter felt comfortable speaking out in class and her confidence flourished. She was eager to go to school every day, he said.
"I would have never thought along those lines. But I see that now, as she wants to run for this or that and get involved," Belton said about his daughter, now a freshman in a coed high school. "It gave her a foundation to say 'Yes, I am that good.'"
Boys also say that being separated from girls helps them learn.
"I like it because I can focus and study more here," said Quinn Martin, an eighth-grader who started making the honor roll after entering an all-boys program. "Everybody's more focused on their work, and it's easier to learn."
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On the Net:
Ass'n for Single-Sex Public Education: http://www.singlesexschools.org/
Bravo ping
In other words.... it's okay if girls come away with sexist ideas of being superior. (Typical NOW think)
Our daughter went to an all girl’s school and really loved it. Our son did better in a coed environment. Fairly common, really. Girls are less concerned about looking smart when it’s only the girls and boys are more interested in showing their stuff when they are around the girls.
About 15 years ago, some "educators" with more than half a brain tried to do the same-sex school thing with some bottom-of-the-barrel minority male "youts" [to give them a chance at an education, since the current system wasn't working for them].
The school district was taken to court for "sex discrimination", and I'm pretty sure had to cancel the program.
A Diana Moon Glompers pox on those that must destroy that which works, or has a chance of working.
The purpose of schools is to educate, not be the end of some misguided, unworkable utopia.
Oops. It happened in the Chicago area.
Similar in NYC. IIRC, it was an all-girls school in Harlem that was working well. Closed it down.
We had to resort to a boarding school. And hard as that was, no regrets. And that daughter is now expecting her first child and she says she plans to do the same thing if they have a girl.
Having been to both coed and single-sex private secondary schools, I can say that single-sex was a far more productive learning environment for me.
It’s been so long for me that I’m having to thunk on it. Mooning over those girls may not have helped me academically but I did like it. :-)
That would be tough.
She was a rising sophomore. We were in Columbus, OH and she was in Baltimore, MD. Hard. Very hard. But harder for me than for her! LOL
If you want more detail, honestly, FReepmail me and we can discuss it.
I hope they hurry up. My daughter is in the 6th grade. Florence, SC. District 1.
There are studies out there showing conclusively that same sex schooling produces an excellent product in every way.
Also, uniforms do wonders as they keep the kids fom envying the others clothing, the rich kid and poor one look the same.
The learning environment in much more prone to good teaching.
There are studies out there showing conclusively that same sex schooling produces an excellent product in every way.
Also, uniforms do wonders as they keep the kids fom envying the others clothing, the rich kid and poor one look the same.
The learning environment in much more prone to good teaching.
I hope your daughter gets to take advantage of this program. And I hope it makes its way to Kansas by the time my first grader gets to be that age.
Funny you should mention that, as I have also been to schools with uniforms and with a "dress code."
Far fewer cliques, when everyone dresses the same. It was very liberating not to have to worry about having the latest styles and looking "cool."
Except at dances, but at least I wasn't worrying about it from monday morning to Friday afternoon.
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