Segregating Adolescents

A majority of parents want and expect their children to get the best education possible. There aren’t many who would wish their child to not emerge as a well rounded, successful individual who is recognized in their career. Therefore, parents spend a large amount of time deciding on where to spend their money for a top-notch schooling experience. The debate on whether a parent should send their child to an all female school or all male school has came up in recent years. Will this be contributing to children becoming more productive and lucrative later in life, one can ask. Segregating adolescents by gender in schools can only lead to hurting their development and socialization with the opposite sex. Granting the allowance for children to go …show more content…
Jen Saunders writes an article that allows some insight to what exactly can be destroyed. For example, if girls and boys are not able to work together in the classroom it can lead to one of them feeling inferior or superior to the other. She also points to sexism developing. One of the sources Jen uses in her paper, Lynn S. Liben, examined how classrooms segregated by sex have students that showed signs of sexism. To finish off her article she talks about how they are allowed fewer experiences. She mentions how when males and females learn together, they can learn from another and benefit from exposure to peers with different learning techniques. (“The Disadvantages of Schools” 2). All of these faults that can come from same sex schooling will only make this imperfect world more imperfect. An article that brings to light all of the possible pros and cons, further envelopes these ideas. The article by Elizabeth Danish mentions how the more diversity a child is apart of the more “appreciation, understanding, and sympathy” they will end up having throughout their life. She has a particularly enlightening statement, “ It’s also a good idea to try and develop the feminine side in your male children and the more masculine side in your girls” (“Pros and Cons of Single” 2). Not all children are the same. Some …show more content…
Adolescents that may have found a so called ‘confidence’ because they haven’t been around the opposite sex can’t be expected to just magically have that same confidence when they come back into contact with them. Going back to some things Liesel Haskell, a student at an all girls, writes about we can see how that assurance and courage that girls have built can be torn down when a male comes into the picture. “And inside the classroom, the most vocal girls were reluctant to raise their hands because boys were around. Aghh! It was junior high happening all over again!” (Kid’s Quill). This shows how even though the girls had learned to be competitive and assertive, they weren’t used to being around males, making them become less assured and confident. Wouldn’t it be better for adolescents to be in an environment where they learn to interact and become confident with the other gender, so they can carry these skills into their future? Men and women need to be able to cooperate with each other, because most likely in the future these men and women will be colleagues. There is no way that the world can advance and become a place that people are happy to live without both genders being able to work together. Maria Magher, a professional writer and teacher, writes about how “sex-segregated classrooms is that they do not prepare students for the real world. The workplace will