Single-sex education

This round I will form rebuttals and counterarguments to my opponent’s contentions. Thank you for presenting your arguments. I will do my best to accurately represent them while avoiding a straw man. 1. Students from single-sex schools are better academically than mixed-sex schools "Do Single-Sex Schools Improve the Education of Low-Income and Minority Students? An Investigation of California's Public Single-Gender Academies" The title of that article already throws up a red flag. I try to avoid bias and remain as objective as possible; however, with respect to this situation, it appears the education pool has already been greatly diminished. The vast majority of single-sex institutions are private, and therefore the tuition is exponentially high for a low-income or minority student. “In the 2009-2010 school year, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, or NAIS, the average tuition at day private high schools stood at $19,906 a year, while boarding schools averaged $40,875. The tuition is even higher for the most elite prep schools.”[1] 1 $11,490 2 $15,510 3 $19,530 4 $23,550 5 $27,570 6 $31,590 7 $35,610 8 $39,630 [2] "Several teachers also commented that the setting made certain actions unlikely. When boys did not have girls present, they felt less need to show off, act out, or engage in attention-getting behavior. Likewise, girls who did not have boys present did not have to vie for their attention. Instead of competing with each other, girls learned to work collaboratively, bond as friends, and became more focused on their academic work." This statement entirely ignores the necessary growth and development of the child with respect to social skills. The whole paradigm of boy-girl relationships is tantamount to the interactions of men and women in their later years. This statement is also from the perspective of the teacher, not the student. Observation is a flawed skill, and cannot accurately represent the students true intentions or emotions. Also, cooperation is not restricted to single-sex education. The point of intersex cooperation also needs to be mentioned. Cooperation among one’s own sex can easily be achieved through segregation in a co-educational setting; however, the converse cannot, in a single-sex institution the “cooperation” is limited by its very nature. For the remainder your argument not much needs to be said. You are committing a false cause fallacy by assuming because the test scores are higher, it must be the result of the lack of the opposite sex. In reality, the selectivity results in the demand for higher education values, thus the teachers typically have prestigious degrees. The achieved result is in the greater attainment of knowledge. This is not due to separation of sexes. 2. Students from single-sex schools don't have any sociability problem Due to time restraints, I will have to keep this short. I already referenced social ability in my previous rebuttal; however, I will expound upon it in short. Self-Esteem and Educational and Career Aspirations are used to describe SS students; however, I again assert that this is a result of private education, not a result of single-sex education. The study shows other researches showing that Delinquency is lower on SS school students. This does not mean that CE schools student are more delinquent than SS, just shows that they have an environment less favourable to develop a delinquent. As stated before, the lack of the opposite sex favours friendship over competition between the classmates. Boys won't be fighting for a girls won't be doing crazy things for a boy's love. A lack of Delinquency again results from the selectivity and the increase in academic integrity that is a side effect of a prestigious private education. Again forming relationships with the opposite sex is a crucial aspect of youth. “Competition” in this sense may be a good thing, but I also go to a co-educational school, and competition is not an issue, nor are girls constantly “doing crazy things for a boy’s love”. I fail to see how eating disorders are the result of separation of sexes. That appears to be a red herring and therefore possesses no validity in this argument. "You can come like in the morning.. and you don't have to put like make up on because we're girls and if there were guys here...[We would be thinking],'Oh my god, I can't go like this."(4) One girl’s opinion does not accurately represent the whole. Again it seems as if a logical fallacy is at work. A hasty generalization appears to be the case. The American Council for CoEducational Schooling put together a report, The Pseudoscience of Single Sex Schooling, which worked down to break some of the "cherry picked" claims that back same-sex education. In this report, the organization asserted that single-sex education reinforces sex stereotypes, arguing, "Boys who spend more time with other boys become increasingly aggressive," while "girls who spend more time with other girls become more sex-typed." The lead author of the report, Diane Halpern asserts, "It’s simply not true that boys and girls learn differently," reminding readers that "we used to believe that the races learned differently, too."[3] “Although much has been said about the benefits of same-sex schools, not many are touting the benefits of the old standby of coeducation. According to the ACLU, some studies find that students in coeducational schools can do better than single-sex students. And the ACLU is quick to point out that same-sex schools that do well are successful not because they are segregated, but because they have the hallmarks of good educational environments, including small classes, adequate funding, parental involvement, and qualified teachers, which help bring about success in coeducational classrooms as well. The ACLU underlines that socialization, competition, and collaboration between sexes in school prepares students for success in the real world as well, as real life is not separated by gender.”[3] One last thing needs to be said in regards to your personal argument. As I said earlier, I attend a private institution. It is ranked very highly in the United States, where I live, and it operates as a co-educational school.[4]I thought I would throw in a personal argument simply to counteract yours. Sources [1]http://www.ehow.com... [2]http://aspe.hhs.gov... [3]https://docs.google.com... [4]https://en.wikipedia.org... Thank you for taking the time to participate in this debate. I look forward to your rebuttals. Merry Christmas as well.