subject: Single Sex School For Your Child [print this page] When considering potential schools for your child, there are a great many options to choose from. Private school, charter school, and boarding school, those with rigorous academic curriculums or with competitive sports programs - many factors come into play. Some of these schools will be co-ed and some will be single sex. How do you choose? How do you know if a single sex school is the right choice for your child?
Current research shows that for a variety of reasons students are performing better and are more successful in schools with only female or only male students as opposed to those that are co-ed. Students at all-girl schools tend to score higher on their College Board and Advanced Placement exams, as well as on standardized tests. In the areas of math and science, girls immediately begin to achieve and participate more when separated from boys.
Girls specifically tend to thrive in schools where there are no boys. These schools encourage girls to live up to their full potential without the pressure to impress boys. These schools also encourage learning in ways that are more in keeping with the specific female learning style. Girls are freer to participate in class discussions, which tend to be dominated by boys in co-ed schools.
Girls are not the only ones who benefit from a gender specific environment. In all-boy schools, students spend a great deal less time worrying about whether they are looking or acting cool. They are often behaviorally more appropriate when impressing girls is removed from the equation. Boys are also more likely to pursue activities that may be thought of as feminine in a co-ed setting, such as art, drama and music.
Gender stereotypes that are thought to more predominantly exist in co-ed schools can be broken down in schools that are single sex.
Your childs individual learning style may be more conducive to a single sex learning environment. Taking into account temperament, strengths, weaknesses, and challenges will help you choose between single sex and co-ed. A co-ed classroom setting may prove to be distracting, and an all-boy or all-girl setting may be more appropriate for your child.
There may be less social pressures for your child if he or she is placed in a single sex rather than a traditional co-ed classroom setting. School events and activities may be more appealing and motivational when they can be geared solely toward one sex. Not all professionals, or parents for that matter, believe however that single sex education is better than one that is co-ed.
The debate over whether single sex or co-ed schools are better will continue to go on. What really needs to be taken into consideration is what you believe to be the best fit, academically and socially, for your child. There are numerous pros and cons on either side of this debate, and your own personal beliefs will largely come into play. Read all the research that is out there and then make your own informed decision.
