analyzing+to+death

= RAHS Note Page =

Source
Henry J. Waters III Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.. "Same-sex classrooms: Let's not analyze it to death." //McClatchy - Tribune Business News//. 06 Jan. 2010 //eLibrary//. Web. 04 May. 2010.

Summary/Direct Quote
Jan. 6--At Field Elementary School beginning in the 2006-2007 school year, fourth- and fifth-graders were segregated by gender. Now Field is closing and its staff and students are moving to the new Lewis Elementary School. What to do about gender separation in the new setting?

Teachers at Field praise the system, saying students in same- sex classes are not distracted by boy-girl interests and pay more attention to academic pursuits. But Field Principal Dan Boatman, who assumes the top spot at Lewis, is not ready to promise much for the future. The Field program of gender separation will continue at Lewis for the remainder of the year, but Boatman says he and other officials want to see data to prove learning improves when boys and girls are separated. This will be a chancy task, confused by variables in the natural talents of the groups that will come through the system and the limited duration of the separation. I'd rather see principals and other educators use smart instincts to give gender separation a longer, perhaps permanent, workout.

Even a nonprofessional operating without benefit or burden of an education degree can see the benefit of gender classroom separation. The only possible benefit of mixing is to provide social interaction, of which today's youngsters get plenty and then some in the 20-plus hours a day they can mingle outside of segregated classrooms. For a few paltry hours when learning is supposed to be the only enterprise, surely single - sex classrooms are a better environment.

This is a simplistic no-brainer. For this decision, simplistic is better than getting bogged down in data, uncomfortable though that concept might be for the well-trained professional.