Single-sex Classrooms

Promoting Cultural Socialization

Single-sex classes formed a part of the plan to promote educational settings that center on culture. The special focus on this mission is the African culture. The aim of single-sex classes is to make the African girls and boys’ assimilation into the community where they live in as smooth as possible.

The African American children need to be taught to be responsible citizens later on. They should be oriented on the roles they will assume in the community when they grow up. To do this, the school is not restricted to focus on academics alone but also the promotion of the individual student’s social and personal growth. Education then becomes a tool not just for individual achievement of the students but also for the advancement of their respective communities.

African-centered education is not new in the United States. Although, it was widely practiced in private schools in the past, public schools are now showing active interest in it. African culture-based education has encouraged the need to explore single-sex class education.

The purposes in using single-sex classes for African-centered schools are diverse. First, it is intended to encourage academic accomplishments by giving due emphasis on the role the school play on the students’ future lives.

Another aim is to encourage personal and social development with particular focus on the African and African-American culture so they can adapt effectively to the diverse world outside school.

Lastly, urban teachers see single-sex classes as a way to address gender discrimination issues. Girls are often perceived as the discriminated gender. The single-sex classroom setting is believed to encourage girls to be more comfortable and open in discussing matters revolving this issue.

Criticisms

It is hard to determine the impact of single-sex classes to urban students. Problems in arriving at a clear conclusion on the effects of single-sex classes arise because research goals differ, implementation of single-sex classes in different ways such as single-sex classes after school or single-sex classes in a coeducational school or pure single-sex classes for girls or boys. Another impediment is the need to conduct more research studies over a long period of time.

Defenders of coeducation believed that single-sex classes promote inequality. Separating the learning facilities will lead to system bias. This will encourage stereotypes in gender and causes inequalities in opportunities for men and women. Single-sex schools indirectly promote gender discrimination instead of eliminate it. For instance, boys do not learn cheerleading or home economics just as girls do not study football or making woodworks.

Those who advocate for coeducation maintain that single-sex education does not prepare the student for a realistic community setting where both sexes intermingle with each other and work together. This in turn lead to poor interaction skills with colleagues of different genders and causes ignorance even discrimination to other gender.