A friend of mine went to a women-only college and she’s always talking about how great it was, and how she’s so happy she didn’t go to a co-ed school. Are there some benefits to going to a single-sex school, and is it really that different?
If this becomes a debate, mods may move it if they wish.
I went to an all girls high school and there were some things I liked about it and some things I didn’t. The main advantage was that it took most of the boy/ girl distraction out of the school day. Since we also wore uniforms there was no worrying about how we looked, especially to any boys we might be trying to impress.
The main disadvantage was that I got dumped into the adult world of men, not having had much experience in how males were different since I was last around them in 8th grade.
I then went to a college that was around 7% women so, it was kind of a shock. I was active in sports and worked a lot so I didn’t do a lot of socializing with boys in high school. As a college student I wish I had gone to a school with more women. I didn’t have many female college friends and all of my high school friends were out of state.
Not much. After the first time, I learned I wanted it more. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Personally I would have liked it. The girls probably learn more (with less distraction) and express themselves. Period. In most high school scenerios, the girls have learned to hide their intelligence in order to appear subordinate to males. Blehhhh! And what good does that do them when their “good catch” leaves them for a younger woman, or they get passed over for a position they would have loved and been good at?
Nurture the mind. If social development comes later than usual because of the seperation of the sexes, that usually works in a young girls favor. She’s a little older and wiser and more cognizant (I have to get a new dictionary) of her needs and knows what she will and will not settle for.
Parents, remember. You’re not raising children. You’re raising soon-to-be-adults. And most of us are old(er) for a lot longer than we ever were young.
What would you wish for your daughter when she’s 60 years old and you’re dead and can’t help her? You’d hope that she has a solid basis to work from: body, mind and soul. Giving her a head start on confidence can’t be bad (in the long run.)
Where I come from, single sex high schools are private schools, and so you have to take potentially different family backgrounds into account in the comparison, but generally, IME, single sex schools have less of that social shit that seems to consume the lives of students in mixed sex schools. Sure, there is social drama, just not so much of it. Less cliquiness, too, since a lot of that (not all) is born of sexual attention seeking.
It may also be that mixed schools (the majority of which are state schools) are at risk of having discipline problems because they have to take everybody, and one kid with discipline issues can go a looong way in class disruption, etc.
Disclosure - I went to a boy’s school (and loved it), Mrs P went to a mixed school, and we have a boy and a girl who went to single sex schools and a girl who went to a mixed school.
There always seemed to be something quirkily interesting about the girls’ school girls when I was at uni. Can’t put my finger on it, but it may have something to do with that learning to express yourself thing that Becky spoke about. The presence of the other sex may serve to socialise people more successfully, but it can also kill in the cradle the charming idiosyncracies that add variety to the world.
I went to co-ed public schools through middle school and went to a single sex Catholic high school. Particularly compared to my middle school experience, I enjoyed my high school years. There are a number of reasons for the contrast, not all related to gender interplay.
[ul]
[li]I liked not having to worry about what to wear each day. (Uniform, again!)[/li]
[li]I liked not having to worry about my clothing choices and (lack of) variety being mocked.[/li]
[li]I liked the fact that intelligence and classroom contribution was respected and enjoyed by my peers. My high school was small and classes were even smaller. There was a lot more conversation in general.[/li]
[li]My social and dating life blossomed in high school, despite the lack of males within immediate arm’s reach.[/li][/ul]
It’s hard to separate the gender issues from those due to change in crowd and general maturity. I would say that an all-girls environment was very good for me and I think it’s an useful option to have available.
I then went to a majority male technological university and majored in engineering, which I also enjoyed. So I don’t hate the company of males. 
**What are the benefits of a single-sex school? **
More horny school girls. Plaid skirts and knee socks should be a requirment.
Not in the Jesuits or La Salle, yanow…
In Philadelphia when I was in school there were two all academic public HSs in the city, one all girls and the other all boys. I went to the latter. It avoided the distractions of having girls in the classroom. If you think of the typical 14-18 year old boy it seems just obvious how this would contribute to learning. And we did. When I went to college, most of my fellow students were in partial shock over the contrast from HS. Not me. It seemed more of the same. Or rather, that the HS was about as rigorous as the college.
Later on, sadly, as a result of a lawsuit, the my HS was forced to go coed. The girl’s school is still there, last I looked. If there were ever “separate but equal” schools, this was the model, but no, some judge decided it was unconstitutional. Bummer.
Advantage for boys: no classroom time spent fixating on the girls’ bodies, hence at least a possibility that more time will be spent on algebra, grammar, and so forth.
Advantage for girls: no need to put up with crude comments and boorish behavior from boys.
Substitute men for women/girls, and throw in some “Chocolate War” and you have my experience. We didn’t have uniforms, but even business casual is enough to cut down on any fashion competition, especially in the late 80s/early 90s.
It was pretty heavily macho and athletically oriented among the students- lots of letter jackets and that kind of thing. I can imagine that if you were a predominantly academically and gentle boy, you’d be pretty hard put to enjoy yourself at my school. Nobody was getting beat up, but people still got harassed and teased plenty.
My biggest complaint was that there was more activity needed to meet girls since they weren’t in your classes, and since I was relatively fat and had bad acne, I never had the confidence to meet any during high school.
I had a lot of learning to do in college, and was really, really frustrated for most of my undergrad time as a result.
I went to a women’s college and loved it. A lot less bullshit and makeup, at least.
I went to a selective, but state run, girls’ school. Personally, I hated it.
I’m not sure how much of the things I didn’t like were directly a result of the single sex aspect though, it was a slightly weird place, with a lot of messed up priorities, mostly the ‘results at all costs’ attitude, which meant a bully with good grades just got basically asked pretty please to stop, but someone who was dropping grades would be basically harrassed into leaving, or banned for sitting exams (even on occasion exams they were predicted to pass) in case they dropped the school’s average.
A lot of the girls I kept in touch with in later years seem to have some problems with their attitudes towards guys, and certainly lived up to the girls’ school cliches- especially the few brought up in all female households as well. Of course, you can’t say that was the only reason, but I’m sure having so little contact with guys from age 11-16 was a factor. My parents told me they wouldn’t have considered it for me if I hadn’t had a brother, because at least I could (and did) hang round with him and his friends, and vice versa, as he attended a boys’ school.
I went to an all boys high school (Christian Brothers). The advantage of having no girls around was that we got to skip all of the drama that comes with teenage hormones. No lover’s angst, no posturing to impress the girls. Just a bunch of guys hanging out. That’s not to say there was never any ‘drama’, but it was dialed back quite a lot because the major source of it was absent.
I’m sure I missed out on something by not going to a co-ed high school, but I’ve yet to figure out what it was.
I don’t think I would’ve done very well in an all-boys’ high school. Being gay I was always far more distracted by the other boys than by the girls (especially during gym class). Most of my friends were girls. My male friends tended to be either through them or guys I’d known since grade school.
I never understood how the School District of Philadelphia has been able to get away with offering girls the choice of an all-female high school for years without offering boys the choice of an all-male high school. :dubious: How can that possibly be constitutional?
It’s ‘constitutional’ until someone challenges it in court. That means there has to be a boy who wants to go to the all-girl school bad enough to pursue it through the courts. Those would be a lot rarer to find then girls trying to get into an all-boys school.
I’ve taught in mixed, all-girls and all-boys. Single sex is definitely better academically; they don’t have the kind of distractions they would have if the other gender was there, since even for the gay kids there’s a pressure to impress/conform. They also don’t have to live up (or down) to stereotypes: boys can shine academically without being mocked, girls don’t have to be asinine babies without brains. They can also grow up at their own rate. Boys are a lot less mature without girls around, but in some ways it’s nice to see them keep their childish sense of wonder and explore things in their own time. Girls on the other hand seem more mature without boys, because there isn’t the pressure to flirt or not be cleverer than the lads; yet at the same time they retain girlish interests for longer. As Becky2844 says, you’re old(er) for a lot longer than you’re young. Why be in a hurry to grow our children up?
I can see the argument about social conditioning, but in day schools there’s no reason why that has to be a problem. They get to see the other gender every day, if they choose. Most students round here go to mixed primary schools and sixth-form colleges, too, so they’re only separate from 11 to 16. Now the single-sex boarding school from 10 to 18 (like I went to myself) is a whole other question…! Having said which I’m a happily functioning adult in a healthy relationship, with many friends of various genders. Didn’t do me any harm (well, not in the long run).
I went to an all boy high school for two years. It was great overall. I went the first year to a co-ed school, but was very very shy and with low self esteem, so I felt a LOT more comfortable when it was just boys. Also when there are no girls around for boys to compete over, everyone was much friendlier and there was more comeraderie. Also it was great to not have to worry so much about your appearance.
I don’t feel like it stunted my relations with girls at all, it helped me through an awkward time without stupid things like making up excuses for not going to dances, etc.
This is a myth, if you are interested you should readThe War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Summers. In surveys high school girls always feel more listened to by the teachers and feel they can express themselves more. It makes for a good victimization story but it simply isn’t true, if it was then girls would be doing worse than boys academically-but at least in America, boys are the stragglers.
As a teacher, I can say that single-sex classrooms would be a dream. Boys would stop posturing, girls would stop dressing like hookers…sigh
Seriously, though, you’ll find the academic integrity of a group goes up when they are separated from the opposite sex. We decided to start doing ‘boys only’ and ‘girls only’ groups once a week in our alternative school/center.
I think it depends on the class. Girls are ‘expected’ to behave, so when a girl does something ‘out of the ordinary’, she may suffer harsh consequences, even if a boy just did that exact thing yesterday (because ‘boys will be boys’). Also, in science and math and (sometimes) history courses, boys will get more attention.
It has also been documented that boys are called on more in class (which is still up for debate). But in my experience as a teacher, boys DO get to talk more. I make a conscious effort to draw in the girls, but boys…can’t…sit still or shut up. So it’s not so much that I call on them more on purpose, but they’re yelling out answers or jumping out of their seats saying, “EE EE!! OOOO OOOO!”
I went to a mixed sex private Catholic school for grade school and a girls only private Catholic school for high school. Most of the girls in the co-ed school did what is typical in my hometown - got married rather young, had babies, and either never got a degree or are now finishing up their degree as they near 30. On the other hand, the girls from my high school nearly all have amazing, powerful careers as lawyers, doctors, pilots, aerospace engineers, scientists, small business owners etc. Although some of them are currently out of work while they raise children, I have no doubt that all of them could get employed again if they needed to. When I compare them to the women I know who aspired just to be a housewife/mother, there’s no competition. I hope I can send my daughters to single-sex schools.