I am not so sure that I share the AAUW's concerns (and I am an AAUW
member) that single sex education would result in the disproportionate
allocation of resources towards the all-male schools that was true in the
pre-Title IX era. These schools would be under a level scrutiny (from both
the public and the state) that simply didn't exist in those days.
I'd also like the debate on single-gender schools to shift from the
all-or-nothing concerns that characterize the current discussion, to
looking at ways within our current mixed-gender system for creating
opportunities (daily, weekly, occaisionally at least) when boys and girls
can be in single-sex settings. Having taught gifted elementary students for
twenty years, and once or twice (by serendipity) under single gender
circumstances, I believe strongly that there are defininte advantages for
both boys and girls to be with their own gender, at least part of the time.
I wish there were easier ways to accomodate this, short of total
educational reform.
As an educator, I continue to work within the traditional educational
setting for equity reforms. But were I the parent of a daughter, and had
the wherewithal, I'm not sure I'd send her to a public mixed gender school.
For whatever reasons (I haven't looked carefully yet at the recent AAUW
report), women from all-girls schools achieve higher and find their way
more readily into positions of influence and authority, than their
mixed-gender counterparts. Were I a parent of a daughter, at this point in
time anyway, I'd be looking (regrettably) for a good all-girls school.
Tim Flinders <flinders@wco.com>