Single Sex Education in Todays Schools (2015 ed.

Single gender education is the practice of educating male and female students in separate buildings or
classrooms. This should not be mandatory in today’s education. Same sex schools are discriminatory,
same sex schools are unfair to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning) students,
and same sex schools support misconceptions. Our younger generations do not need the school’s biased
ideas planted in their heads. With all of the advances in today’s society, do you think we should move past
the gender barrier once and for all?

Same sex schools should not be mandatory in today’s education as they are discriminatory. For example,
single gender schools focus on gender stereotypes. Many of the schools are based around the assumption
that there are male-dominated and female-dominated subjects. Lucy Hart, author for Demand Media
states, “Students in same-sex classes can receive instruction that will help them succeed in all subjects…
[Students may not feel obligated to compete with [students of the opposite gender], allowing them to
work more freely in [gender] dominated subjects…” This suggests that subjects are for either males or
females, which is not the case. Subjects taught in schools are equal to both genders and teachers give their
students equal opportunities to succeed in a classroom setting. Furthermore, single-sex schools do not
allow diversity. Only one gender is allowed in the school, which means you don’t get both opinions.
Coeducation schools get both points of view because you get to see from both a male and a female
perspective.

Additionally, single sex schools are insensitive towards LGBTQ students. Many of these students struggle
to be accepted in everyday society, but they would also be singled out in a solitary gender school. For a
transgender student, after transitioning (either from male to female or female to male), they would have to
also change schools if same sex education were to become mandatory. This places a lot of extra stress on
the student. Transgender students wouldn’t be the only people affected, though. Same sex schools are also
partially based on the assumption that all males like females and all females like males. Under this
conjecture, the distraction of the opposite sex, which would be found in a coeducation school, is
eliminated. This assumption would prove wrong for lesbian, gay and bisexual students, as they would still
be around people of the gender they are attracted to. Also, self expression is important in students and
same sex schools would limit these students from expressing themselves out of fear that they will not be
accepted for who they are. I have some friends who fall on the LGBTQ spectrum and when they came
out, they were nervous. Being restricted to only talking to one gender would limit your ability to express
yourself and be who you are because
Single gender schools also support a common misconception that males and females learn differently.
Some may argue that a male might learn slower than a female because they develop at different rates, or
that you need to use different teaching methods with each. This is not the case. To illustrate this fallacy,
Chris Blake from Demand Media states, “A 2007 study conducted by the National Institute of Mental
Health found very little difference between the male and female adolescent brain when it came to learning
styles. A popularly held misconception throughout the latter part of the 20th century was that boys and
girls learned differently and thus benefited from being separated when it came to education.” In addition,
males seem to be more hands-on than females. Francis Wardle, Ph.D. claims, “[Males] are more advanced
in their mathematical reasoning, spatial ability and mechanical ability, while [females] score higher on
memory, perceptual accuracy, verbal fluency and language tasks.” Although this may be true, many
females tend to also enjoy hands-on learning. Gender has nothing to do with your ability to learn or to
react with the world. Males and females should not be separated due to misconceptions revolving around
developmental differences.

Same sex schools are substandard in todays society. Single gender schools reinforce discrimination, are
unjust to LGBTQ students, and support gender barriers and misconceptions. These faculties are unfair and
disadvantageous. Stop mandatory single gender schools!