Some of the assumptions you make regarding why a parent of a girl might
ultimately decide that single sex education is better for their daughters
are
wrong do to the fact that they are too general. The first thing I would
like
to ask is whether you are the parent of a daughter, and the second question
is whether you have had any experience dealing with a public educational
system in where you have to fight constantly with teachers and school
administrators so that your daughter is not subjected to an extremely
sexist
curriculum and the academic, social and emotional negative effects of such.
Having experienced this, if a parent decides to put their daughters in a
single sex school this is no due to any 'selfish ''attitude'' on our part
as
you suggest, but is more due to the fact that we have come to realize that
that is a much healthier academic environment for our daughters. An
academic
environment where women are central, great role models are provided, where
girls are free of sexual harrasment, and where they don't have to compete
for
sports funds, is in fact what some of us would wish and would jump into in
a
minute. Choosing such education for our daughters is not about believing
that
''one has solved the problem for one's daughter so too bad for yours'' as
you
imply. It is about realizing that our daughters deserve the same academic
opportunities that boys are given as their natural right, sand that if one
has to go get that opportunity some where else than so be it. You also say
''let's solve the problems for all children rather than attempting to
shelter
ourselves''. That is in fact a naive general statement. Not one but me and
my
husband are doing and have been doing anything to correct the situation of
sexist schools and unfortunally our success has been limited because in the
3
years we have been doing it, I have yet to meet another parent with
concerns
for this same issue. I been worrying about other girls in schools as long
as
I have been fighting for mine. But there is so much I can do when other
parents cannot or will not take responsability for the education of their
own
daughters...so where is the valid philosophycal argument here that I should
continue to sacrifice my daughter on behalf of a community that could not
care less and on behalf of an educational system that is thoroughly sexist
and does nothing to change ?
Adriana Lesemann
C123S105L@aol.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 28 2000 - 15:39:55 EDT