This is actually the blog topic for next week, but the idea of same-gender classrooms was coincidentally something I was thinking about a few days ago, so I thought that now would be a good time to address it. My cousin Meghan was in town last week, and she goes to an all-girls Catholic high school. I couldn’t even imagine going to school with only girls (the drama! The competition!) so I was giving her all the sympathy I could when she looked at me and said, “You know, it’s actually not that bad.”
Not that bad? How can going to school with only half of the population be a good thing? Yet, as we talked about what going to St. Mary’s (yes, that’s actually the name) was like, I found that some aspects weren’t as bad as I thought. For Meg, the worst parts of her high school were wearing uniforms and not being able to meet guys. The uniforms are a separate issue entirely, but I had to sympathize with her on the not meeting guys thing. If you go to an all girl’s school, the only male in the entire building is probably the subtly pervy gym teacher, and forget finding anyone to go to prom or homecoming with. This, obviously, would be the biggest downside of an all-girl’s high school. The surprising thing Meghan had to say about her school was that, since it’s only girls, the students were much more focused on academics and much more competitive–in a good way. Apparently, without the stress of having boys around them all the time, girls were free to say what they wanted and could answer questions without worrying about how they looked or whether they were right.
After thinking about what Meg had to say and reading our blog topic, I realised that having certain classes with only one gender in a co-ed school might be the best of both worlds. For one thing, because the school would be mixed, there wouldn’t be any worries about not getting to interact with guys–girls could still date and have guy friends–but on the other hand, it would be a chance for girls to say whatever they wanted and to take a break from guy-related drama and stress. I’m not saying this is every girl, but–and I’ve seen it happen–some girls get really timid or even dumb themselves down to impress guys, and having a class with only girls would give them a chance to see what they were really capable of. There would be no ridiculous “Oh…I don’t know” whenever a teacher asked a question for fear of appearing “too smart,” but we wouldn’t have to separate girls and guys completely. After all, our world has both women and men in it–both genders need to grow up knowing how to coexist with the other, and life is much for fun that way. I’m not saying segregate boys and girls–but an all-girl or all-boy class every once in a while would be an interesting thing to try.
