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Single-Sex Schools, Segregation, and Stereotyping

For years, single-sex education has been hailed as a bastion of reason, with parents across incomes scrambling to send their little one to The X School for Boys or The X School for Girls. For years, the public image of single-sex schools has gone pretty untarnished, with little thought (by parents) on the effects of segregatory, sexist, and exclusionary education. 

Firstly, single-sex schools promote gender stereotyping. In 'the west' (a concept I generally dislike) we live in a very gendered society - dictating how boys and girls should act. You've heard it all before, it's nothing new: girls play with dolls and like pink, and boys wrestle in the mud and like cars. Now just imagine how easy it must be to fall into gendered stereotypes surrounded only by others following the same set of societal rules. Even if, as a girl, you don't like dolls and hate pink, the appearance that everyone else likes it (even if they don't) lets you paint yourself as an outsider, and as the outlier - the one, very wrong, the exception to the rule, encouraging conformity to society's arbitrary and archaic rules. Single-sex schools are already in the practice of defining gender by the situation in which you are educated, not only forcing transgender students into a sticky situation (see point four,) but also incorrectly promoting the faulty belief that males and females have vastly different learning styles (despite evidence to the contrary.) For example - ACLU Maine writes - "for a reading assignment at a school in Louisiana girls were given "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" while boys "Where the Red Fern Grows." This was because "boys like 'hunting' and 'dogs,' but girls prefer 'love stories.'" These schools are reinforcing stereotypes in ways that students can't even realise, teaching stereotypes that, in adulthood, become harmful and discriminatory assumptions about the (unseen) other sex.

Secondly, single-sex schools promote homophobia. Bias and hostility towards queer children across western civilisation is a huge problem in today's society, as is only supported by the existence of the single-sex echo chambers known as schools. Schools have always been hotspots of homophobia because children don't have the social sensitivity to break away from a society that teaches children to point out and mock differences. Whether the torment of queer children happens in the classroom, cafeteria, or online, it is not all helped by surrounding queer youth with only members of their own sex. Especially against homosexual males, homophobia is much more prevalent in the western world among members of the same sex. This could be because men, especially teenage men, feel strongly defensive of their masculinity - and queerness, especially in other children their age threatens this. 

Thirdly, single-sex schools in low-income areas promote racial segregation. Young Latinx and Black men are identified in the states as the most 'at risk' national demographic. This group has the highest expulsion and suspension rates and the lowest university matriculation rates. In some large cities, dropout rates from this group are as high as 50%. So, what do our public officers do to help these boys? They segregate them into single-sex schools for 'bad children,' thrusting them into a world where bad behaviour is the norm and surrounding them with other similar children. These schools become crime incubators, ruining the lives of the vast majority of their students. Because these schools mostly consist of BAME students, it's evident that not only are Black and Latinx students being neglected due to their behaviour but due to their race. White lawmakers have no concern for the education and culture of Black and Latinx communities because they come from privilege, and normally wealth. Again, ACLU Maine says "even when white lawmakers come from the poorest areas of the places they represent, they still represent the accumulation of opportunities more easily earned by their whiteness. They are separating the problem, removing the demographic targeted as the most dangerous (or in the need of the most help, depending on how you see it) to national education statistics. Single-sex education has become another way to isolate, and ultimately ignore, our country's issues."

Fourthly (what an ugly word), single-sex schools are problematic for transgender children. This is somewhat a repetition of my second point, but the point of view of transgender children is - I feel - important enough to warrant its own point. In the UK, transgender children are protected under the Equality Act, so should be able to enroll in single-sex schools depending on their gender. However, single-sex schools - more often religious or traditionalist than co-ed schools - are reluctant to conform to the government's agenda, trying to dodge government policy by confusing parents. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, students (in general) can't experiment with their gender. Conservatives often argue that transgender children should engage in a 'gentle' social transition before medically and legally transitioning because this protects them from being 'confused' by the liberal media. Whilst I agree with the sentiment that transgender students can benefit from a period of gender experimentation and a gentle social transition, this is made impossible in single-sex schools. This is because, for example, if an AFAB (assigned female a birth) transgender man was enrolled in a single-sex all-girls school, it would be impossible for them to transition whilst enrolled because they would be seen as different to every other student, and transferring to an all-boys school would be even worse as the child enters the awkward phase that is transition - enduring merciless bullying and violence, I have no doubt about it. In a co-ed school, transgender students can enjoy an air of gender confusion, unbound by social pressure to conform and identify as any gender. Single-sex schools are dangerous for trans youth and lead to terrible consequences. 

In conclusion, single-sex schools should be nationally abolished as their existence is a racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic monument to archaic gender roles and flawed pedagogy cooked up by the educators of the past.

07/11/2021

by Frankie E.J. Robinson

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