“Old Tactics” Shouldn’t Mean “Old Attitudes” NYT – Old Tactic Gets New Use: Public Schools Separate Girls and Boys

December 2, 2014 § Leave a comment

They lost me at ” Act pretty at all times!”

I believe same gender classrooms have much merit but the attitudes, comments, quotes and mindsets in the NYT “Old Tactic Gets New Use: Public Schools Separate Girls and Boys” article so amazed me that I checked to make sure the date on the paper was 2014 and not 1914.

Some of the more unbelievable comments/statements included:

  • Supporters say girls have more in common with other girls — and boys with other boys — than with the opposite sex of the same age.
  • The training materials…noted that “gently competitive lessons may be more impactful for boys”
  • …and that “lessons that incorporate emotions and emotional vocabulary” may have more impact for girls.
  • Teachers were also advised to be “more tolerant of boys’ need to fidget or girls’ need to talk during class.”
  • “I am able to push them to their level and include sports and different things,” she said of the boys she teaches for part of the day before swapping with a reading and social studies teacher to work with girls. She added that she liked to turn math sessions into games because boys “like competition.”
  • showed a crate she kept in a storage room of fuzzy pastel blue sweaters for girls, saying they were more likely to feel cold than boys.
  • For spelling and vocabulary lessons incorporating physical activity, Ms. L brought out hula hoops and small rubber balls for the girls.
  • The boys would get yo-yos, bats and badminton rackets.

Full disclosure – I went to an all girls school for grades 1-12. (Yes, all my schooling until college.) I was a “fidgety” student and a talkative student. I was asked by my HS principal “are you a lady?” when I spoke my mind. In a classroom full of girls my voice carried since it wasn’t a typically girl-ish voice and I was often singled out as talking out of turn. (I’m proud to have continued on in my life speaking my mind.) That isn’t the part of the school experience I would recommend. But there was a great deal about it that I would recommend.

One of the greatest things about an all girls school experience was that the best student in all subject matters was a girl. Girls ruled in every subject. Girls ruled in any of our curriculum subjects. The best person for any job was a girl. We got used to experiencing girls in positions of leadership. It was natural.

As a classroom teacher in coeducational classes I faced many challenges (try teaching 28 1st grade immigrant children to speak, read and write English – I dare you.) but classroom management because “boys and girls are different” wasn’t one of them and shouldn’t be the driving force for a same gender classroom philosophy or theory.

As an educator I’ve served in numerous roles including as a classroom teacher, program developer, teacher trainer, director of a drop-out prevention program and as director of a govt. program that coordinated multi-billion dollars of services through 25+ agencies. In all of them I approached children and youth as humans with different strengths, weaknesses, preferences and innate qualities.

Any group of girls will have the fidgetiest, most competitive, difficult, coldest, fuzziest, creative and most emotional girl. Any group of boys will have the fidgetiest, most competitive, difficult, coldest, fuzziest, creative and emotional boy. The challenge is to develop classroom management techniques and lessons that target each of them.

So while my same gender education was problematic in some ways, it was a great experience in others. I think an all girls or all boys class has a lot to offer children. It’s the theory driving it described in this article that are very problematic. What this article should do more than anything is to  get people to raise their voices and speak out about the underlying attitudes and beliefs about ‘boys are/do’ and ‘girls are/do’.

Still speaking my mind and encouraging all of you to do the same – every day,

RKW

Kiki

http://www.twitter.com/coachkiki

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