Single sex education

As you are probably aware, there is a lively debate going on right now about the merits of single sex education in public schools. Many argue that girls are intimidated, particularly in math and science classes, when boys are in the same class. And, apparently some studies have indicated that girls do better in single sex environments.

Last night Kevin Drum weighed in to the debate by sitting on the fence.

I find it strange that no one ever seems to talk about whether this is good or bad for boys. Maybe that's because the subject is sort of looked at through the distortion of a feminist lens. The evil boys dominate the girls in a co-educational environment and prevent them from attaining their full intellectual potential.

Whatever the reason, I thought I'd make a few comments, mostly from my own experience.

From fifth grad on, I attended all male schools, first a country day school in my home town in Ohio from fifth through eighth and then a boarding school in Massachusetts for the four years of high school. As I think back on it now, I am easily convinced that the cloistered environment of the boarding school, and, to a lesser extent, the all male environment of junior high served me very well in the strict sense of gaining a "formal" education. I have no doubt that, had there been girls in my classes and in the surrounding environment, that would have been a massive distraction during those years when the hormones were raging. Every bare ankle (we didn't get to look at bare thighs in those days, so a bare ankle would have to do) would have drawn my attention away from whatever the instructor was doing or from my homework in study hall.

Had I remained at home in a co-ed school, I'm convinced that my evening hours would have been devoted entirely to endless phone calls to "sweet hearts" rather than focused on reading the textbook, writing the term papers, and completing the problem sets.

There's little question my studies would have suffered.

Or, is there?

The other side of the coin is the impact that total isolation from the opposite sex had on my ability to socialize with women. Because of the total isolation at school, I knew few girls and had even less contact with them. I really didn't know how to look at a girl as a friend or a buddy or a colleague. On the few times I did have an opportunity to interact with girls, there was one object and one object only in mind -- sexual conquest. The first once over when I met a girl was to determine whether the girl was attactive enough to be worth pursuing. If not, forget her. There was no time to just fraternize. There were only five more days left to the holiday, and I had to move on to find someone and make things happen quickly. Once the girl passed the first screen, then the sole object of further contact was conquest.

Now, I sense that was a totally warped view of things, distorted largely by the fact of isolation. And, to some degree, it still influences my dealings with women even now at my advanced age of 64. Even today, I find it very hard to meet any woman and not at least consider the thought of going to bed with her. Luckily, since most of the women I now meet are roughly my age, most don't pass the first screening, so we can go on to be friends without being bothered by further pipe dreams. But, there is always that first, quick once over where the question crosses my mind.

Perhaps, even my first comments about girls being a distraction in the classroom grows out of that warped background. Perhaps, had I been enrolled in a co-educational environment, I would have gotten over all that stuff quickly, and not been distracted from my studies by the presence of women. Who knows?

How does sexual isolation affect girls' ability to socialize with men? Is it similar? I haven't the foggiest. But, I'm sure there has to be some effect. And, in today's environment with men and women working together as (hopefully) equals in the workplace, it's surely important to know whether earlier isolation from the opposite sex warps the working relationship.

At any rate, it seems to me that there are considerations here that go well beyond the simple question of the impact on formal classroom learning.

So, perhaps for very different reasons than Kevin Drum, I too am a fence sitter on this question. I'm sure this should be a fertile area for serious research.