My 7th grade daughter is in an all-girls math class this year. She has struggled with math over the years, and 6th grade was especially tough for her.
But the school decided to do something different this year and segregate by gender. It's made a huge difference for her -- she has always said she's not very good at math, but this year, we've heard her say things like "I'm smart at math." Night and day difference.
Some researchers came to the different classes to see what the girls and boys thought about it. The girls were all highly enthusiastic, saying things like "It's great!", "No boys to distract us!" "Girls Rule! -- WonderSister Powers, Activate!!!"
And the 7th grade boys? At least one of them said "Oh. There aren't any girls in our class? Huh."
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The Difference Between Girls and Boys
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4 comments:
Cool! I'm glad its working for her. I wonder if there is some larger statistical work being done on this.
Junior high kids in general are so focused on the social aspect of life, school tends to fall by the wayside. When they are segregated by gender, that energy isn't dissipated, but actually has a chance to go toward understanding the subject matter.
Good for her.
Homosexuality/Gender Benders notwithstanding?
A good friend of mine would have probably loved this approach with Daughters #s 1 and 2. As he put it, they went into junior high school and junior high school spit them out as emotional disasters who subsequently have a myriad of problems and neither has really made their way as 20-something adults.
Daughter #3, for whatever reason, make it thru unscathed.
Single-sex classes eliminate some, but certainly not all, of the heather-esque behavior that so brutally boils to the surface in the 7th and 8th grade.
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