Should Boys and Girls be in a Separate Class Research Paper

Should Boys and Girls be in a Separate Class - Research Paper Example Arguments in favour of the method One of the major benefits of separating the two genders is that students get to receive better education as per their personalities. It is well understood that girls are often more silent than boys, a factor that favours the good development of the learning environment. At times, girls also seem to be talkative than boys and this may require a new type of education (Weil 56). Psychology puts across the main stages of development among individuals. Learners in both primary and secondary level are at a crucial age of development which can be characterized by several activities amongst themselves. An advantage of teaching a specific gender with respect to this issue is that their future learning would be enhanced, considering the diversity in their growing ways. Boys get older in sexual matters and this could have an effect on girls who may concentrate more on the boys’ attention and thus interfere with the normal learning activities. Many religi ons perceive that boys and girls ought not to attend classes together, particularly during the age of adolescence when such children are curious and have-not yet acquired discipline in the body and mind. The religions with this perspective fear that children may engage themselves in sinful occasions in intimate quarters for the time allocated in school. They suggest that children should not be exposed to this â€Å"risky† situation till when they mature up and get ready to involve in legal circumstances. Above all, separating them keeps their minds focused on studies rather than on each other in the class (Leinhardt432). Other proponents suggest that single-sex education is the best because it is believed that children achieve higher results when taught separately than in unison. Boys’ and girls’ intelligence differs significantly, so their learning pace differs as well. Girls are more passive learners and perform well when it comes to classroom discussions and drawings or diagrams. Their visual ability is also high and are believed to be auditory learners. On the other hand, boys learn more kinetically and like practical learning. This assumption means that by teaching gender-based classes, different learning styles can be catered for and thus teaching them together will mean interfering with their potentials. Boys and girls are engaged by dissimilar stimuli, proving that if a teacher caters the class to the interests of girls, he might lose the boys and vice versa. Boys are sometimes intimidated by the superior verbal abilities in some subjects such as English, but can score far better if girls are not in their midst. The same applies for girls in science subjects, P.E, and woodwork. According to one American psychologist, who is also a family doctor, Dr. Leonard Sax, girls ought to learn on their own. He states, â€Å"The best possible thing you can do to help your daughter is to get her into a girls’ school.† His main arg ument is that the single-sex schools are a good way to eliminate the gender stereotypes in the society. To him, girls in schools with specified gender are more likely to study subjects that are perceived to be masculine. They can pursue engineering, technology, computer science, and physics and be more active in competitive sports compared to girls in co-educational schools setups. Further, he argues that the focus