PEGGY WEEKS <peggy_w@nde4.nde.state.ne.us>
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>>> Tim Flinders <flinders@wco.com> 03/14/98 02:27pm >>>
Linda: I think the single sex academy experiment should be allowed
to continue without court challenges so that we can study them and find
out just what effect they do have. If they turn out to benefit both
genders, than I think the single-sex option should be allowed within the
public school setting in ways that do not violate Title IX.
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>