AL Middle School Segregating Boys & Girls Because "Boys Learn Better"

[celtics23]

From: www.davidpakman.com

[drynberg]

1. HERE WE GO! THE SOUTH SHALL RISE AGAIN!!

Yippee, those clever educators in AL (always a'thinkin') have devined the perfect key to the future...their math and science scores (for males, that is) will soar to new heights...Yeah, right, can you imagine being a sane teacher in this system? You'd have to move you ass outta there pronto. Holy Crap...

[ancianita]

2. Great. Patriarchy's only divide-and-conquer answer: separate the genders. Next up, religious

pressures to 'socialize' girls.

[GiaGiovanni]

3. They have NO scientific evidence for this. In my personal experience, boys have issues at this age

I taught middle school and in my experience, if anyone has learning issues in middle school it is the boys. Many of them are hormonal, edgy and can't pay attention for long periods of time. Yet, they are still little boys in a lot of ways and can be really sweet. I had to develop lots of very active classroom activities to keep the boys busy and engaged, and I always thought they should have at least an hour outside everyday to do something physical like planting a garden and working on cars. A lot of them learn better by doing at this age than by sitting with a book.

I actually like teaching boys in that age group and it worries me that we lose so many of them between grades 6-9 to gangs, truancy and academic failure. I always thought the boys needed more attention and help in middle school, or, in fact, a completely different approach like Montessori.

[Smilo]

4. Coming soon

no need for girls to attend school.......... they don't need to know "stuff" that will mess with their perdy lil heads now - all they need to know is how to cook, clean and please de man.

[Squaredeal]

5. Boys learn better?

Funny, in my daughter's integrated middle school, eleven out of the twelve students in her advanced placement class were girls, which included math. The rest of the boys couldn't hack it.
In grade school, my daughter was assigned to seat next to boys to keep them in line.

[GiaGiovanni]

6. I taught middle school and that sounds about right

Public schools try to keep a good gender mix for precisely the kinds of disciplinary reasons you mention. That's why it's important to understand (and keep repeating) that there is NO scientific evidence at all for what the AL schools are doing, just sexism.

Boys this age are really wonderful though. You have to keep them busy and active (and, no, they're not going to pay attention, so don't expect too much!). But they're smart and fun and really sweet at this age if you can keep them in school and out of trouble. We lose a lot of boys at this age to gangs, drugs, truancy, and other social problems. That's why after school programs are so important--for ALL kids--but boys, in particular seem to need a lot of watching and tending at these ages.