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by Edward F Orciuch Jr

Created on: June 27, 2007   Last Updated: July 10, 2011

I really believe that may be an individual issue, as I believe education starts in the home at an early age. It is a well-known and proven fact that students who come from homes where books are present and have parents who read to their children daily are more motivated in a school setting once they get there. I grew up an only child, so any socializing happened with friends and neighbors and family in my pre-school years. Once in school, and it was all public school, naturally boys and girls were mixed together.

Upon entering college I attended Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, which by the way was founded in 1963 as the first college in the Roman Catholic tradition as co-educational. The late Bishop Walter W. Curtis was the principal founder, and it was his contention that men and women of any age must learn to live and work together, and I believe that. No matter what the age, children notice the difference between boys and girls, and of course that involves the physical and the intellectual. We all have individual personalities and traits, and in order for us to live on this planet there is no better time to learn it than in school, whether elementary or secondary or college.

Some years ago there was a book entitled, "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus". I can't comment on the book, because I have never read it. But I firmly believe what the comedian and satirist George Carlin once said, "Men are from Earth, Women are from Earth. DEAL WITH IT!" Our school years are formative on so many levels and children might just as well get used to the fact that at some point males and females have to work together. What better place than in a classroom setting. It seems to me there is a better flow of ideas and dialog and exchange of opinions. As far as discipline goes, that is the responsibility of the school to have a set of rules to let the students know that school is a place primarily for learning and not a baby-sitting service for the parents. By the way, I happen to believe that learning is on the academic and social level, so both play a part - there has to be balance.

I remember when I was a student teacher. My assignment was in an all-boys Catholic school. This was a bit of a culture shock to my system, as I had never worked in that environment before. The single-sex environment to me was unrealistic and had an image of a world that in reality does not exist. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way putting the school down, as it was run by the Franciscans and done very effectively. But it did not have an environment where the boys could become educated along with girls and learn to work together.

By the way that school eventually, for economic reasons, had to combine with a girls school nearby, and today it is one of the best high schools in the area.
Once a student graduates, he/she will go eventually into the workforce and will have to deal with the opposite sex. Attitudes learned at home will go a long way toward making a person a better worker, and learning to work together in a school setting will, I believe, better prepare students for the real world - not only in the workplace, but socially. And of course, in marriage and the family.

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