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More
than 1700 girls and boys in
South
Carolina
took part in a recent survey conducted by that State’s Department of
Education. The students were from Grades 2 through 9 in over thirty
schools. What is interesting about the survey is that all of the students
were receiving their education in single-gender classrooms and the results
may surprise you.
No less than 75% of the
students agreed that the single-gender approach was helping them in
school. They said that being in a classroom of all boys or all girls has
increased their confidence, class participation, desire to succeed in
school and their report card marks.
State Superintendent of
Education, Jim Rex stated, “More and more
South
Carolina
parents are choosing this option whenever and wherever it’s made
available.” Indeed, more than 150
South
Carolina
public schools are expected to offer the single-gender option to parents
in September 2009.
The results of the
survey and the tremendous endorsement of both parents and students could
be an indication that we may begin to see this option being made available
in
Ontario
as well. It is at least worthy of consideration as a way of perhaps
improving the problems inherent in our system today in terms of classroom
management and motivation of students.
Marymount
Academy
is currently the only publicly funded single-gender “school” in the
Greater Sudbury Area. The
school is operated by the Sudbury District Catholic School Board and
offers programs exclusively to girls from Grades 7 through 12. If you were
to take a survey at Marymount you would discover an overwhelming support
of the single-gender approach from students, teachers and parents alike.
Most would cite the same reasons as noted by the
South
Carolina
students for their endorsement.
It is a bit surprising
that with all of the efforts being made to improve the quality of
education being provided in our
Ontario
schools the single-gender approach has been largely ignored as a viable
option. And yet it makes perfect sense for at least one particular cluster
of grade levels, especially since we are witnessing the growing acceptance
of another trend in school organization across the province today.
The trend to which I
refer is the policy being adopted by many school boards to place Grade
7’s and 8’s into secondary school settings. This trend is showing no
signs of slowing down, and in fact a number of the local secondary schools
in the area have already made the move.
This will result in two
distinct school organizational models which are more appropriate to the
way children learn. Elementary schools will consist of JK – Grade 6 and
Secondary schools will include Grade 7 to 12. This new organizational
model makes perfect sense in light of the priorities we have in our
schools today. It is also in line with the major move across the province
to offer more courses in the skilled trade areas to our intermediate grade
level students in order to encourage more or them to consider careers in
the trades.
Once we have shifted
the Grade 7 and 8 students into the high school setting, the next logical
move may be to introduce the single-gender approach, especially since it
is receiving such positive results in the United States and even right
here in Sudbury.
The most appropriate
situation would see single-gender classes offered from Grades 7 through
10. These are the most volatile years for adolescents when hormones have a
tendency to get in the way of learning and when curriculum content begins
to become more and more important.
By organizing the
students into single-gender classes, we would remove one of the major
distractions which has become such a barrier to learning. There would be
no more “game-playing” and “posturing” in class. Students could
get right down to the business of learning the all-important curriculum in
Grades 7 to 10. It is during these four critical years that students must
be allowed every opportunity to discover their academic strengths and
passions. This is the time for them to lay the foundations for Grades 11
and 12 as they prepare to make the transition from secondary school to
university or college. Once they get into Grades 11 and 12 students can
once again be placed in mixed-gender classes. By this time they will have
established their goals and objectives and will be able to focus on what
they must do to get ready for life after high school.
Elementary schools,
which are often smaller in size, would present much more of a challenge
when it comes to offering single-gender classes. There just may not be
enough students in each grade to allow for a suitable split of the boys
and girls, but the need for single-gender classes is not as great at the
elementary school level. Up until the end of Grade 6 it doesn’t make
much difference whether you have boys and girls together in classes.
Moreover, the focus is more on the development of learning skills and
attitudes up until the end of Grade 6. In Grade 7 the priorities begin to
shift towards curriculum content as students use their “learning
skills” to acquire new knowledge in a number of different areas.
Within the next couple
of years it is quite likely that we will see one or two local secondary
schools offer the single-gender classes as an option for Grades 7 to 10.
Predictably, the interest among parents and students will likely be
tremendous and registrations for these classes may go through the roof.
Once school board administrators realize the level of support from the
public for this organizational model we may see other schools naturally
follow the lead.
The move towards
single-gender classes would be very easy to implement. For example, if you
have four Grade nine classes at a secondary school now, with approximately
half of each class consisting of boys and the other half girls, then you
will end up with two Grade nine classes of girls and two Grade nine
classes of boys. The curriculum will be the same. The expectations will be
the same. The exams will be the same. The only difference will be that two
of the classes will be able to deal with the curriculum from a female
perspective, while the other classes will deal with the curriculum from a
male perspective. There will be “no games”. There will be no
“pressure” to impress the opposite sex. Those games and pressures will
be left for the interaction of students in between classes and after
school where they belong. Classroom management will improve; participation
levels will improve; self-confidence among students will improve; and all
students will have an opportunity to succeed without fear of intimidation
from the opposite sex.
Until next time, this
is Inside Education….. |
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