Art of Manliness - Latest Comments in Segregating the Sexes

Re: Segregating the Sexes

JohnE — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 17:58:10 -0000

I have to say that, as in most things, moderation is the key to this issue. If you completely segregate based on gender, you cripple the social development of the child. If you completely integrate (as has been the practice of late), you cripple the ability of one of the groups to be successful. There are so many examples of how it's not ok for a man (or a woman) to have their thing. Where a guy can be with guys doing guy things. Or a woman can be with her ladies and do womanly things. Everything has to be together. But the problem is, we are different. We were made that way on purpose. Men need to stand up and act like men. Women need to stand up and be strong women. What we have now is just a poor represenation of a mix of both and it is really sad.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

JT — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 11:11:52 -0000

Let me break this down for you all. Men become men by being around men. The same for women. I know a kid whose mother screwed up his life by dressing him in girl's clothing until he was 15. If he had been at a gender segregated school with a strict dress code, she couldn't have destroyed his life. I have to wonder how he would have turned out if he had a father or at least a male mentor to help him out. Also, anyone who throws around the word misogyny needs to learn the word misandry. You want equality, right?

Re: Segregating the Sexes

foreigner — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 03:12:28 -0000

I think that's It just depends on the learning style and how the kid was raised. I mean all the girls were expected to sit there quietly and let the men do the talking until the late 1900's. Men have been considered the more rambunctious crowd so they started acting like it. It depends on the sole person. I think that sex segregated schools are stupid because then you don't get the diversity of the student's like you would at a public school.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Jeremy — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 06:49:11 -0000

As some one that works in a public school "gender identity" can be an issue. I will say that one positive thing I see in schools today is that children are much more tolerant of eccentric and different. There is one particular 7th grader I mistakenly called a girl. His body language and manner of dress was so feminine that I honestly was surprised. Thing is as far as I can tell none of the children made fun of him. Not saying it didn't happen but I never saw it.

Another 6th grader was asked by my young charge, I'm a special education aid and my main student has social disorders. Just says it like he sees it asked him one day, "Why don't you ever hang out with the guys? You spend all your time with the girls." He wasn't making fun of him though he was just curious.

This is a puzzle because boys and girls do on average learn and behave differently. Also, having pubescent teens in the same class rooms are just distracting. Not on the level of prudishness just on the level of productivity. The hormones are going crazy and having them together all day long is distracting to them. Who wants to learn algebra when there is a cute girl in front of you and your 12? Unless she wants you to learn algebra all they often do is act out to get each others attention. Often times the most disruptive of males becomes and engaged student once the females he is interested in are not around.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Srinivas Kari — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:35:56 -0000

I think that de segregated schools help kids learn the critical skill of learning how to deal with the opposite sex. Of course, it is not the only way to learn this skill. Dealing with the opposite sex near home, any other location etc is just as good. To raise another point, I doubt the effectiveness of schools and the effectiveness of the curriculum. You can learn everything you learnt at school on the internet. The teachers are not well trained. School teaches you how to learn by rote. It encourages you to study for the test.It does not encourage you to think, to ask questions and self study. You cannot expect to learn everything in life from a teacher.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Bonnie — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:36:08 -0000

@Cole Kelly You do honestly make very good points, but I have to disagree with your statement that "young people [don't] have a problem socializing". Though my generation is very social, we have a very difficult time navigating our social world. Without school, we wouldn't have the amount of friends we do. Even though this might not be the case for everyone, for a lot of people it takes knowing that you're all going to be in the same room for a few months to work up the collective courage to become friends. And it's not that friends feel like something we have to have, it's that we're very insecure about how to go about things. If we have gender-segregated schooling, the mixing of genders is going to decrease GREATLY. Outside of school, the main place that we make friends is sports, which is already generally segregated by genders. Although academics and performance are very important, the world is co-ed and we need to know how to function in that. We don't want the workplace to be the first experience of working together. It would only do to increase the gender divide.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Julia — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:22:09 -0000

What about girls who have ADHD? Or girls that might fare better in the boys classroom? As I former tomboy who still has some more masculine tendencies I could see this not going very well for girls who were like me.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Christine — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 12:01:07 -0000

I agree with the article. I attended a girls school from grade 5 through grade 9 and it was so much easier concentrate.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Jordan — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:31:02 -0000

They should be segregated by gender and intelligence level. As a school teacher, most of the discipline issues I had to deal with were boy/girl issues. We could have only male teachers at male schools and vise versa for female schools. Then boys could get another role model and vise versa for girls.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Dillon Colbert — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 06:26:23 -0000

No, they should be segregated by intelligence levels and learning styles, which you can see early on. take your daughter for instance, she is going to learn more like a guy and act more like a guy, because that's how her brain developed when she was a baby, to learn in a specific pattern, it's the same thing with little boys who grew up with similar patterns of a "typical" girl. then you have people learning certain things at certain rates and if they are learning it to fast or to slow for their class they will either get bored of it or will stop caring about the class because of all the stress over whelming them.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Bryan — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:49:03 -0000

The entire education system needs to be restructured. We just learn differently. We like to move around, most of us can't sit still. Teachers need to gauge on men's strengths and try to tame us as little girls.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Ben — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:19:28 -0000

I can see this being of benefit for elementary schools when kids usually segregate themselves by gender but by junior high classes should be combined in order to help with developing cross gender social skills. School is also a large social experiment and training ground for kids so keeping the genders divided until graduation could be socially damaging to kids if they do not know how to interact with each other and what to expect from one another.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Emily Case — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:23:21 -0000

Instead of worring about how different genders learn better, how about seeing how everyone learns better. We all learn differently, no matter what our gender is. Take the time and see how every student learns and try changing your teaching technique to fit the skills and learning ability of all the students. Kids and teens have a right to be around people of the different gender. It teaches them about the different gender.If they are separated, they wont know how to deal with the opposite gender when they get into the real world.Sure the scores may get higher but thats because theres nothing else to do but learn and listen. School is only enjoyable to the students because of the students electives, which are also being taken away. Now, the students cant even go to school and talk with their friends with the opposite gender. Your taking away their friends, and everything that is possibily fun about school. I should know, because i am only in the 8th grade. Let the students be heard out, and see what they have to say about all of this mess.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Mackenzie — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:18:23 -0000

I see Tamara and Amy are bringing exclamation marks back in style. :P

WELL, speaking as a female in my last year of Catholic high school, I say I agree and disagree.
YES, segregated classes do work in some cases, such as gym class, where there's the health unit, which contains sex ed. My girls-only sex ed was filled with a lot less giggles than my grade school coed classes (but really... it's grade school). It also probably helped with girls being more confident in their abilities, as compared to the (probably) more physically fit guys. I will say though, we were probably as or more rowdy than the guys' gym classes (it's true!). Not to mention these segregated classes are only for the junior students; senior phys ed classes are coed, and function perfectly well like that.
That being said, DO NOT segregate public schools. I know Catholic schools are considered private by the Ontario government, and also receive more funding than public schools, thus perhaps creating a possibly for single-sex schools, but it would not be worth it. What many comments seem to be saying is that girls and boys are distracted by physical attraction to each other too much - isn't that true throughout life? As long as a person possesses hormones and eyeballs (it's difficult to gauge looks without sight), men and women will notice attractive people of the same sex, and be inclined to spend some time thinking about them. Also, what of the diversity of ideas and viewpoints? Both genders can bring valuable insight on various topics; for example, during a debate in my senior religion course, we were asked if pornography should have limits on its content (yes... it's not a strictly traditional Catholic school). Myself and my two female friends sided with *every single guy in the class* that of course it should restrictions.The rest of the girls in the class said it should pretty much be a free-for-all. If the guys had had a single-sex debate on this, it wouldn't have happened. And as for the idea that feminists thought up the "sit down and behave" teaching approach... like another commentor, men started this first. Don't even try to throw this wool over our eyes - know your history, don't make your own version up.
We've already debated in-class, numerous times, on this subject before. The world is not segregated by sex; therefore the institutions that are meant to prepare us for it should not either.
I'd just like to mention that I appreciate this blog, as we are sorely lacking in men in this day and age (there's only boys that are available... I want young men! ;]). Not only that, but a lot the posts are interesting, valuable, and for those that couldn't ever possibly apply to me (men's fashion, anyone?) are intriguing and amusing on their own. However, by many of the comments on this site, those that are reading AoM should be, as they clearly have skewed perspectives unfitting of men.

Now.. @Oracle, you, sir, are an idiot. Way to try to draw an automatic "REPEL" response from us - equate strong people who want to equalize rights to soldiers who followed an insane doctrine and committed mass genocide upon a race, their culture, and all others who opposed them. This makes sense, I suppose, to you. Also, on the topic of women wearing pants in formal situations? Women don't simply dress for others; they dress for themselves, in what suits their personal preferences and comfort levels. I believe this is also in several of the blog posts on men's style here. Besides, Bill seems to like Hillary just fine, whether or not she wears pantsuits.:] My lesbian friend feels more vulnerable in dresses rather than pants - skirts hold no "natural power" for her. And wouldn't the female form be women's true "natural power", as clothing is a man-made invention? More girls wear the uniform pants rather than the nasty uniforms skorts that are required at our school, and our female principal wears pants on daily basis. I'd like to announce that we're all functioning perfectly well, thank you very much.:]
To every one else... keep it civil. Picking fights over the Internet is what pre-adolescent kids on a sugar high do. ;]

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Ty Jones — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:27:41 -0000

I find it very interesting that the Supreme Court, in one of their liberal interpretations of the Constitution, ruled that VMI had to accept women, there was no place in modern society for a public institution of higher learning that didn't include women. Now PUBLIC schools are discriminating on the basis of sex by setting up single sex classrooms...come on, the reality is that there should be places of learning, public or private that are single sex. I think there are definite advantages in some instances for men and women who go single sex schools.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Ozymandias — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:31:32 -0000

Hmmm...I'm pretty on the fence about this.
I can see what people mean when they say that they were more comfortable speaking in segregated places. That's a good thing. But there are a lot of negatives.
I, for instance, am transgender. I was born physically female, but my mind, the way I perceive things (including myself), the way I behave, and even the way I react are male. I would be more comfortable sharing my opinion or speaking among boys, not girls and would have resented being basically 'told' who to spend time with. I would have been EXTREMELY uncomfortable in an all-girls classroom or school. Most transgender people don't even understand what it is until they are older as well, it's just a feeling of 'being different' or 'not fitting'. What this means is that it becomes nearly impossible to segregate on gender identity. I won't mention the lesser but just as important problems of tomboys and more effeminate boys or this will become a dissertation.
The only thing I am certain of about this subject is my agreement with the latter portion of Miss Bergman's comment. I also think that this is a primarily cultural or social problem and that gender segregation in schools is not the end-all solution.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Zack — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:27:15 -0000

One thing to consider is that may this is not a black/white all-or-nothing issue. Gender segregation could be helpful for touchy social issues like sexual or social development, where the presence of the other gender could hinder participation because of fear of humiliation, there are other places where such segregation actually reinforces problems, such as sexism, misogyny, aggression, and negative stereotypes because the two genders are not allowed to socialize with each other, and so 1)the myths that cause the above problems are allowed to propagate and 2) because there is a primary emphasis on segregating by gender, there is no argument being made to see each other as people.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Katherine — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:49:37 -0000

As a college-age girl, I have to say that the best classes I've ever had (high school and college) have been those with roughly similar numbers of girls and boys. The two things these classes shared were a small class size and an excellent teacher, and in the end, I think that matters a lot more than gender segregation. These were all debate-based courses, and I felt that the debate would not have been nearly so interesting had there not been both the male and the female perspective--however, maybe there is something to teaching math and science in segregated classrooms. Ultimately, it seems like a scheduling nightmare to me, whether or not it's had success in some locations.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Steph Bergman — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:37:28 -0000

I attended an all-girls school from 5-12 grade, and I actually appreciated it. I felt much freer to state my opinion or to say the right answer in class than when I was in a co-ed environment. Of course there were still bullies, people who hogged class-time, jocks, and anti-social people, but without boys there, several other girls and I didn't care as much what others thought of us. During lunchtime, there was no feeling of "Oh, I shouldn't be eating this cookie, I'll get fat"; people just ate what they did, acted how they liked, and no one thought anything of it. While my school definitely could have done a better job with creating opportunities for both sexes to socially interact, I really do believe the single-sex environment I was in allowed me to form a strong sense of self and to realize what's important in my life before I headed off to a co-ed college and work life.

However, the very fact that I felt freer in a single-sex environment to speak my mind than I did in a co-ed environment really says something about our society. From where did I learn to care what boys think of me (my appearance, actions, personality, etc.)? Why should that matter? Therefore, I think single-sex education is only a band-aid for a gaping wound that schools and our entire society must address. If both sexes are raised to consider the other equal, then I think single-sex education would not be needed.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Dante — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:14:00 -0000

I really agree with Justin. It'd be perfect if it wasn't by sex, but by the student's gender identity.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Blake Helgoth — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:41:35 -0000

I used to be a youth minister for a large Catholic parish. We segregated the kids for small groups and as much as poosible on retreats. It was far more effective. We even had men's and women's sessions that went more into depth with gender specific issues. It cut way back on the flirting, they paid more attention and they were more open to disscussion. It was not a popular idea and it was new to the parish, but it works. There is no reason to through that many hormones together and hope for the best. Teach the boys to honor the women and the ladies to honor the boys. Let them spend soem time together, but very limited and very supervised. Seems like a no brianer, but maybe the sociologist would preffer we operate with no brains.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Kadi — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:32:39 -0000

This is crap! First off i found this website while researching for a persuasive essay about how segregating by gender is unacceptable and this has agrivated me thoroughly. First off, I compete at everything! i thrive on competition and one of the reasons that i do so well in school is to accell over the guys. Also, most of the girls in my classes groan everytime a teacher says to sit and listen. Men came up with the idea to sit quiet and listen to lectures so don't say that this style of learning is beneficial to women. Second, the whole distraction thing is the individual's problem, not everyone elses. (Checking the other sex out in school is half the fun!) You might think that I'm failing classes or struggling because of this, but I am a straight A student, compete in math and knowledge competitions(placing in all of these), and still excel in sports. Thirdly, I like to move around rather than sitting all day in class; it's not just the guys. I may be more quiet and conceeded, but thats because I respect my elders and understand when the appropriate time is to have fun and be stupid(which is obviously not at school). Finally, if guys think that girls in school are demoting their manhood, then go be manly on your own time. You don't have to become a girl to listen and respect them and teachers. Guys might think it's annoying that girls aren't as competitive or roudy, but I hate it when guys make perverted comments and think it's funny. If the classes were segregated, I can guarantee that these comments would be stated more often and respect for women would plummet which shouldn't necessarily take a backseat to education. Seperating genders could even give kids that segregating in general is an okay idea whereas it is completely wrong as we have already established with African Americans in our history. Hopefully, whoever reads this will understand where I am coming from and actually consider what segregation will do.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Amy — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:16:23 -0000

Ok here's the thing, what the heck guys!!!the people that say girls can't understand stuff as well and we can't comprehend stuff, well it's ridiculous! Girls are competitive too and can kick butt any day! we love to compete!In fact i usually like to compete against all sexes just so i can see how i compare to everyone! and as for academics, one of my great friends is the smartest and leading in every academic competion and have three other girls following her for it. Although the guys are doing well it still proves that we can understand stuff just as well. Also, alot my guy friends come to me for advice on a daily bases because i actually understand their situations more throughly. Again on the competition, alot of the girls are amazing at sports and work just as hard. I do alot guy sports too along with a couple other girls and we play guy teams and still whoop them. All of the guys that treat girls with disrespect...newsflash!you'll never get a awesome girl with that additude!gosh all we want is to be treated with respect and not be treated like less than some guy. School sex segregation is a joke! if guys can't consintrate cause they just can't help staring!it's happened to everyone!that doens't mean we should all go homeschooling cause after finding out that a while of same sex class, the guys won't no what to do without someone to hit on, they'll start hitting on eachother! and yes i think this is just weird that girls aren't as cool as guys even crosses peoples mind!the guys need to just realize girls can be just as good, tough, smart, competive, and much else as guys.

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Tamara — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:06:03 -0000

segregation is wrong. Guys have no right to push girls around and tell girls that they are better than us. you don't see the girls going around telling other girls how much guys suck at different things. Sure of course boys are most of the time better at football than girls....... but how many boys are amazing at cheerleading... not as many as girls....... This is personally very dumb, men do not have anymore rights than women. They should just learn to respect women. It is proven that girls are smarter than other males....and also states that women tend to succeed farther in their career......which just proves to show that women have a better chance of succeedingn and deserve a higher level of respect. Many of the teachers are also females which just shows also that men have some of their own problems that they can't handle... like girls!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Segregating the Sexes

Angie — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:53:31 -0000

As a teacher, I can tell you boys and girls learn differenlty at different rates. The biological evidence is clear: the male and female brains develop in unique ways--especially in the early years. In addition, the sexes thrive in different social and emotional environments. The main reason we don't provide single-sex education anymore is money (big shock). It costs a lot more to provide single sex education (busses, schools, programs etc.) than to run massive, overcrowded co-ed schools.

For more infor on why same-sex education is best go to www.singlesexschools.org.