The Secret of Single-Sex Schools

University English

Assignment 3

The secret of single-sex schools

Student name: Jiang Xinnan (Bella)

SID: 53058555

Tutorial section: T11

Teacher: Louisa Poon

The secret of single-sex schools

     Single-sex schools are the practice of conducting education for male and female students separately. Before the 19th century, they commonly existed all around the world, especially in secondary and higher education in Europe. From the 20th century, an increasing number of coeducational schools were set up, which became the mainstream in society. However, recently, there has been a surge of interest and establishment of single-sex schools due to the results of some researches, which put this sensitive topic in the center of controversy again.  

      Most parents never stop hesitating about choosing coeducational schools or single-sex schools. Many people think that single-sex schools are mysterious, some of which even treat them with prejudice. However, in my opinion, single-sex schools should be encouraged and supported for the reason that they can offer great help to children’s comprehensive abilities, academic achievements and temperament accomplishment.  

      In single-sex schools, teachers will design special courses according to the physical differences and social cognition of male and female, which will be beneficial to the comprehensive development of them in the future. Meanwhile, these courses will suit their characteristics and personal interest. For example, boys will learn sports including ice hockey, horse riding, canoeing and rugby. During the process of all these outdoor activities, students’ teamwork abilities can be strongly improved as well as their leadership characteristics will be formed naturally. All of these can be regarded as valuable experiences for the boy’s future career development. Besides, boys' schools pay more attention to the cultivation of gentleman demeanor, the boys will get more relevant knowledges in education. Similarly, there will also be some special courses which include manners and etiquette, fashion and dressing, makeup and postures, designed to be beneficial to develop girls’ temperament in the long terms. Sports like golf, waltz, horse riding are contained as well. Through these trainings, girls will get to know how to be elegant ladies and behave themselves decently in social situations. Their charisma can also be developed. Another virtue of single-sex schools is that they provide every student an opportunity to explore and train his or her gift and comprehensive abilities including leadership, interpersonal and so on sheltered to some extent from the pressure to perform for the opposite sex. Furthermore, students in single-sex schools are often more willing to take risks and express their creative ideas because they do not fear to fall on their face in front of the other sex. Statistics indicate that 65% of girls from single-sex schools are confident about themselves, only 40% from coeducational schools think in the same way. In the respect of political engagement, 60% of girls from single-sex schools perform very active, compared with 45% of girls in coeducational schools. It is commonly known that Mrs Thatcher and the Song sisters all graduated from girls’ schools. Their graceful behaviors and attractive temperament can be defined as the best explanation for girls’ schools. Although some of these special courses may be offered in coeducational schools as well, there will only be minority students have the opportunities to attend them due to the limited resources.