Segregation In The Classroom

By Christine Stoesser

Chris Spence, Toronto District School Board’s Director of Education, sparked controversy in late 2009 when he suggested single-gender classes as a solution to fledgling academic performances, particularly in boys. He blogged: “Today’s youth are radically different from the ones our system was designed to teach. This is especially true for our young boys who, in the primary grades, continue to lag behind girls in reading, writing, and math." Through his experiences mentoring boys for over a decade, Spence has seen that providing young men with individualized attention works miracles on their morale and academic achievement.

But is segregating the learning of boys and girls the answer?

Canada’s largest all-boys boarding school, St. Andrew’s College, has been turning out Canadian athletes, scholars, politicians, and artists for over a century. According to their website, “Not only are students less inhibited and more focused in the classroom in a single-gender environment, but research indicates those who attend all-boys schools are more than twice as likely to study art, music, drama, and foreign languages, in addition to the traditional maths and sciences.” The school’s alumni include NHL player Steve Gainey, former chief justice of Ontario Roy McMurty, actor Kiefer Sutherland, writer Timothy Findley and Lawren S. Harris, founder of Canada’s Group of Seven.

Being a private school, its students benefit from smaller class sizes and receive more individual attention; 100% of graduates pursue post-secondary education and the graduating class of 2010 received over $1,050,500 in scholarships and awards.

While segregating genders in the classroom feels like a step backwards, I have to admit that Spence and St. Andrew’s have some progressive ideas that promote well-roundedness in Ontario’s young men.

As a female, I lost all interest in math around sixth grade, even though I had hitherto both enjoyed and excelled in the subject. Years later, I was shocked to find that I was a statistic—many girls lose interest in math when they hit puberty. Somewhere, I had convinced myself that I was an artistic person—that I didn’t need math. Now, I wish I’d received some personal attention at school, like my cousin who attended The Bishop Strachan School for girls and has become a successful engineer. I probably was never engineer material, and admittedly wouldn’t want to be, but also wouldn’t mind being more well-rounded.

Similarly, my heart goes out to men who might wish they had developed an artistic skill when they were younger. An education shapes one’s very life and it is of utmost importance that parents, guardians, mentors and educators are continually exploring and re-evaluating the art of inspiring young minds.

Image courtesy stock.xchng