by Joymaker

Created on: April 01, 2009   Last Updated: April 03, 2009

I believe the question is not if children learn better in same sex schools or mixed schools but rather what would they learn better. Based on a pure academic perspective, I would agree that children do learn better in same sex programs. However, school is not about academics only. Any scenario that is substantially divorced from "real life" will fail to prepare you for it.

The reality is that the world is mixed, therefore education must be mixed. The workplace, which hopefully would be the destiny of the individuals we are forming in our schools, is mixed. It won't be adjusted to better suit one sex or any specific way of learning. Our children will have to compete with opposite sex coworkers for promotions, sell them services, manage their work, etc. Does this mean that we must sacrifice academic excellence for social skills? I personally experienced both sides of the coin in my childhood.

I believe most of my academic learning, or better said the time when I absorbed the most information, happened while I was in a same sex program. However, I'm firmly convinced that the purpose of any school system should go beyond dumping information into somebody's brain. Building an individual capable of succeeding in an ever-changing environment is the ultimate educational goal. Teaching them how to learn for themselves is the real utopia. I just don't think that this is better achieved by isolating them from the real world. From a moral and religious point of view, some parents would prefer to avoid some necessary and sometimes difficult stages in their children's lives.

Adolescence, being the most feared period parents would have to deal with seems to be a significant aspect for considering the need for separate educational programs. It is not like parents could avoid dealing with the "hormone issue" anyway, but they would sometimes prefer to limit the scope while minimizing the risk at school. This, as selfish as it sounds, may be the thinking behind the whole "same sex" education programs. Do hormones disappear after they go to college? Does life become less complicated?

Will relating to the opposite sex become any easier? I highly doubt it! I believe segregation, of any kind (even being part of our nature) should be discouraged from our early stages. We should form fully social individuals, capable of functioning in the present environment and of evolving at the same pace the world does. Not only I believe children will learn better in a mixed program but also consider harmful from a social standpoint to have separated programs based on any factors that mankind have tried to overcome in the past (e.g.: afro-centric school and same-sex schools).

Learn more about this author, Joymaker.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.