Single-sex classrooms minimize distractions at two Buffalo schools

[steven]

Attending one of only two Buffalo public schools that feature single-sex classrooms presents a dilemma for Antonio Williams.

“The best part about this is that your grades will go up,” said Antonio, a seventh-grader at Houghton Academy School 69. “The bad part is you don’t get to talk to the girls.”

Adolescent boys and girls need their own space so they can concentrate on their studies and not on each other, said Elaine Vandi, the Houghton Academy principal. That’s why she instituted single-sex classrooms in grades seven and eight in 2004.

“Hormones are all over the place,” Vandi said. “There’s a real sexual awareness — boom — and they just don’t know how to handle it. With single-sex classes they can concentrate more. There are fewer distractions. It feels safer, especially for the females.”

When federal regulations in 2006 gave public schools far broader latitude to establish all-boys and all-girls classrooms, advocates predicted it would trigger the growth of single-sex initiatives here.

But that hasn’t happened. In fact, there were three Buffalo public schools that had single-sex classrooms two years ago, and now there are only two — Houghton Academy and Westminster Community Charter School. Harriet Ross Tubman School dropped the practice after a change of principals.
In contrast, single-sex initiatives have spread nationally, primarily in the South.

Just 11 public schools across the country had single-sex classrooms six years ago, and there are now 442, said Leonard Sax, executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.

Ninety-seven of those schools separate boys and girls in all grades and all classrooms.

Sax cited the attitudes and backgrounds of many school administrators as one reason why single-sex classes haven’t grown even more dramatically.
“For many people educated in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, any talk about innate gender differences just sounds utterly reactionary,” he said.

Catholic and private schools have long employed single-sex education and describe it as a cornerstone of their educational philosophies.

But some opponents of single-sex education in public schools consider it a form of segregation that increases sexual stereotypes and hinders the ability of boys and girls to get along with each other,

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/441879.html

[winfield31]

Attending one of only two Buffalo public schools that feature single-sex classrooms presents a dilemma for Antonio Williams.

“The best part about this is that your grades will go up,” said Antonio, a seventh-grader at Houghton Academy School 69. “The bad part is you don’t get to talk to the girls.”

Adolescent boys and girls need their own space so they can concentrate on their studies and not on each other, said Elaine Vandi, the Houghton Academy principal. That’s why she instituted single-sex classrooms in grades seven and eight in 2004.

“Hormones are all over the place,” Vandi said. “There’s a real sexual awareness — boom — and they just don’t know how to handle it. With single-sex classes they can concentrate more. There are fewer distractions. It feels safer, especially for the females.”

When federal regulations in 2006 gave public schools far broader latitude to establish all-boys and all-girls classrooms, advocates predicted it would trigger the growth of single-sex initiatives here.

But that hasn’t happened. In fact, there were three Buffalo public schools that had single-sex classrooms two years ago, and now there are only two — Houghton Academy and Westminster Community Charter School. Harriet Ross Tubman School dropped the practice after a change of principals.
In contrast, single-sex initiatives have spread nationally, primarily in the South.

Just 11 public schools across the country had single-sex classrooms six years ago, and there are now 442, said Leonard Sax, executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.

Ninety-seven of those schools separate boys and girls in all grades and all classrooms.

Sax cited the attitudes and backgrounds of many school administrators as one reason why single-sex classes haven’t grown even more dramatically.
“For many people educated in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, any talk about innate gender differences just sounds utterly reactionary,” he said.

Catholic and private schools have long employed single-sex education and describe it as a cornerstone of their educational philosophies.

But some opponents of single-sex education in public schools consider it a form of segregation that increases sexual stereotypes and hinders the ability of boys and girls to get along with each other,

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/441879.html

steve , I went to an all male high school & it was a great school , but w/out girls , there was no incentive to go to school , I mean half the reason junior high & elementary school was fun was the opposite sex was right there with you...........high school was some tough years just because of that , at least in your post , the school is still co-ed , in mine , we had a female teacher or two to dream about , but that's it............

[Dumbfounded]

Single-Sex classrooms are a long-overdue idea.
Aside from the INTERNAL hormonal activity in both genders-

You've got a miasma of pheremones floating around in an enclosed room, driving both sexes nuts, making the kids rut like rabbits driving up teenage pregnancy rates and-