Community Magazine October 2009

In the inclusionary spirit generated by the civil rights movement of the 1970s, feminists sought education reform, claiming that women were oppressed and denied equal academic opportunities. In response, in 1972 policy makers instituted Title IX, an educational amendment aimed at preventing gender discrimination. Title IX stated that no public school shall “provide any course or otherwise carry out any of its education program or activity separately on the basis of gender.” Although this was not its intent, Title IX in effect eliminated single-gender education as an option in American public schools. In an effort to achieve inclusion and sameness in public education, a policy dedicated to ignoring gender difference was put into effect. “The assumption was that by teaching girls and boys the same subjects in the same way at the same age, gender gaps in achievement would be eradicated,” explains Dr. Sax. The single- minded approach to equality has in fact promoted “a bizarre form of political correctness, suggesting that it is somehow chauvinistic even to hint that any innate differences exist between female and male.” Ironically, over 30 years of “gender blindness” has in fact intensified gender stereotypes and gender gaps in subjects studied. Sax recommends that rather than try to overlook or overcome gender differences, magnifying them and understanding them will lead to better education for our children. What We Now Know Dr. Sax, a staunch advocate of single-gender education, claims that “it’s not sufficient just to put girls in one classroom and boys in another. In order to improve academic performance and broaden educational horizons, you need to understand how girls and boys learn differently.” He advocates educational techniques that meet the needs of the uniquely hard-wired differences in the “boy” brain and “girl” brain, while cautioning that research findings should not be seen as grand generalizations about individual boys and girls. Sax clarifies that his findings about gender differences in no way mean that all boys and all girls learn the same way, but that we must recognize and respect biological differences between the genders and have them inform classroom environment and curriculum development. New brain research shows that the language areas of a girl’s brain develop before the areas used for spatial relations and for geometry. The opposite is true for boys. Dr. Sax believes that “a curriculum which ignores those differences will produce boys who can’t write and girls who think that they are dumb in math.” Indeed, numerous studies have shown that girls are more successful in single-gender math and science classes, while boys in single-gender classes are more likely to write poetry. The innate biological differences in boys and girls affect their learning styles, as well. “Girls thrive in noncompetitive collaborative learning situations; boys are motivated more effectively by competitive environments with clearly defined winners and losers,” says Dr. Sax. Perhaps the most striking difference between boys and girls is their response to stress. Scientific studies of all mammals, including us humans, show that stress enhances learning in males while it impairs learning in females. And just as the genders learn differently, their approach to school stress is experienced differently. Roni Cohen-Sandler Ph.D., author of Stressed-Out Girls: Helping Them Thrive in the Age of Pressure , elaborates: “Boys are not immune to stress, but teen girls are far more prone to taking on intense pressures to succeed academically and socially.” In addition to their desire to succeed academically, emotionally “girls feel like failures when they think they upset someone, can’t help a friend, or let down an adult.” The stress girls feel when attending coed schools is often exacerbated by the presence of boys, beginning in middle school. A female high school senior who has attended both coed and single-gender community schools describes the anxiety she experienced in a coed environment: “When I went to school with boys, I spent a lot of time in the morning worrying about what I was going to wear and how my hair looked. I spent more time on my wardrobe selection than I did on my school work. And when I went to school with boys, I ate less because I was embarrassed to eat in front of the boys and I didn’t want to get fat. In my all-girl school I felt much more relaxed about those things and I actually got better grades.” Practical Implications While few will dispute the innate differences between the genders in the learning process, some still don’t believe that separating the genders is beneficial from an academic standpoint. Opponents of single-gender education point to an October 2005 US Department of Education (DOE) review of research on single-gender education which appeared to indicate inconclusive results from single gender trials. However, Dr. Sax points out an obvious flaw in the studies, which show little or no improvement after gender separation. The studies reviewed by the DOE involved merely segregating girls and boys, with no attempt made to incorporate best practices for all- female classrooms and best practices for all-male classrooms. But even without specialized teaching, many such studies did show that merely separating classes produced better scores. In England, for instance, a formerly coed school divided its students into single-gender classes which learned the same courses with the same teachers. Standardized test scores for the boys rose by 26 percent and 22 percent for the girls. In Manchester, students at five public schools were assigned single-gender and coed classes and then their standardized test scores were compared. Findings showed that 68 percent of boys in single-gender classes passed the language skills test compared to 33 percent of boys in coed classes. Among the girls, 89 percent assigned to single-gender classes passed versus 48 percent in coed classes. While statistics about academic achievement tell us part of the story, teachers and students attest to the fact that the single-gender classroom poses many benefits. Mrs. Audrey Calvo has taught middle school-aged students in both coed and single-gender boys classes. “In my experience,” she tells, “I believe that both girls and boys do better when they are learning separately. I have seen girls, who normally are quite animated in class, sit quietly and not share their thoughts when the boys are present.” Mrs. Calvo, who teaches drama, math, English, science and history, notes that “when teaching the Holocaust, the MATH WHIZ 38 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE