Opinion: Column
Single-gender classrooms are wacky
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Also by Sean Kittridge:
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- Milwaukee Public School system in serious need of repair (November 4, 2009)
- Evolution, schmevolution! Just wait for judgment day (October 20, 2009)
- Public television worth the money (October 13, 2009)
- $200 on "Get Smart" DVD's? Sure, if you don't get caught (October 5, 2009)
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I can safely say that someday, as I lay hemorrhaging blood on some operating table in the hopefully distant future, none of the scenes that will flash before my eyes right before I cross over will involve middle school. Like Medieval Europe, middle school represents a time of regression where the kids start to get ugly, the teachers get apathetic, and your dreams of the NBA sit next to you on the B team’s bench. In some ways, the active repression of middle school memories is like a rite of passage for all kids. It’s why they make so many movies about high school. But there is a growing movement in this country that sees these growing pains as unnecessary and counter-productive, and their solution is even crazier than your epic seventh grade ski trip.
There are two major concerns when considering single-gender classrooms. The first, rather obvious issue is whether any sort of segregated classroom is good. Obviously, race-segregated education is unequivocally bad. But even advanced learning classes, which separate more talented individuals from the majority of students, are not a good fit for a middle school environment. Middle schoolers don’t need to hear they aren’t as intelligent as some of their friends, and they don’t need to be told that they’ll be more effective students if their classroom doesn’t include certain kinds of people.
The other concern deals with the development of a student, and whether it’s acceptable to sacrifice social maturity for algebra. Proponents of single-gender classroom say teaching certain concepts is easier when a teacher only needs to deal with one gender, and while it’s unlikely that all boys or girls think alike, there may be some truth to this. But even with this slight increase in teaching effectiveness, it can’t offset the necessary, awkward social development that occurs during middle school. If boys and girls don’t interact on a daily basis in class, where will they? It won’t be middle school dances; Moses himself couldn’t do a better job of parting those seas.
If a parent’s heart is absolutely set on putting his or her child in a single-gender learning environment, there are gender specific private schools they can look into. But this shouldn’t be a parent’s decision. In fact, it probably shouldn’t even be a child’s decision. If you gave your typical middle school boy the option of having class with all his recess football friends instead of potentially having to sit next to a girl during math, he’d take his fellow XY’ers. It’s a phenomenon that’s been known for centuries: Bros before hos.
I’d like to write this off as just another crazy idea from those wacky
Sean Kittridge (kittridge@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in journalism.
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“race-segregated education is unequivocally bad.”
glad that had to be qualified with an ‘obviously’
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Sean,
We need tracked classes from the earliest possible age. Otherwise, society wastes a lot of talent from individuals. I guess you’re bitter about being put in the remedial journalism class?
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Best figure out some way to get the best training and education to the most talented since the top 10% pay most of the taxes.
90% tax eaters and 10% tax payers won’t work unless you do.
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6:25, oh snap!
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Multiple-gender classrooms didn’t seem to do you any good in the social maturity department, Sean.
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While I agree that gender-specific classrooms are utterly ridiculous, the idea that gifted and talented programs should be done away with is equally as ridiculous.
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… or, 11:11, just imagine what Sean’s writing would be like if he hadn’t been exposed to multiple gender classrooms.
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“the idea that gifted and talented programs should be done away with is equally as ridiculous.”
no child left behind = no child gets ahead
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The problem is that to often students forget that school is about education and not socialization. You might get invited to the “cool kids” parties, but if you flunk your grade or score to low on your standardized test you make the adults wonder why. They single-gender concept does not apply to every level, but I think middle school is the level it does.