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Single Sex Education : Harmful Or Helpful?

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Single Sex Education: Harmful or Helpful?
Imagine walking down a hallway, where there are two doors opposite of each other. One of the doors is covered in pink frills and pictures of princesses, while the other is decked in blue and pictures of sports. From the pink door, giggles are heard along with sounds of cups clicking as girls have a tea party. While from the blue door, sounds of pretend racecars and children running can be heard. Now, are these classes taught equally? The public school system has reverted back to old ways. While we see ourselves as evolving and working past differences, the public school system quite possibly could be holding us back. Single-sex schooling has been prevalent since the beginning of school days, as …show more content…

In reality, the data that is available does not show a direct correlation between separating genders and having better test scores. As the table here shows, the average growth for both co-educational schools and single sex schools is quite similar. While single-sex schools might be slightly higher in some areas, the data shows that males do particularly well in co-educational settings, as only 60.0% attain growth in single gendered schools while a comparable 82.6% attain growth within co-educational schools (Hill).
Source: Rhonda Lee Hill"The Effect of Single Gender Education on the Achievement of Sixth Grade Mathematics Students."
As schools look for ways to improve test scores, they must realise that while this method may raise test scores for some schools, it is not a proven method, and therefore should not be a main factor when a school district decides to offer single sex classes (“Gender and Equity in Education”). Additionally, while some say focus is improved, there are also many cases of focus being hurt within children as some children are not like their other classmates. As within boy’s classrooms, children are encouraged to move around and exert energy, while in girls classrooms, children are encouraged to stay seated and share feelings. With this, many children may fall out of norms, with some boys finding it distracting to have other kids walking around and making

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