Girl Power

I found this article interesting, but not overly surprising. The shaping of young girls has always leaned towards the old stereotype of "playing with dolls." While, there has been a lot of progress in this area and women/girls do have a lot more freedoms then they ever did in the past, it's sad to note that the old stereotypes still linger.

What the answer to this might be is hard to decide. I have noticed though that in Las Vegas they are currently considering segregating students by gender. In a very short Las Vegas Review article I found on *Yahoo I read about how some teachers there have noticed "a jump in learning and achievement among students in classes where boys and girls are taught separately."

So far they have tried gender segregation in a "half-dozen middle schools and one high school." The article also reported that some students were commenting that they felt less distracted and some teachers are advocating for it. From what I understand they are trying it out in math, English, science, and social studies classes.

Overall, I found this information interesting, yet in some respects frightening. In a world were kids are already having trouble with interaction and filling the quiet spaces (as indicated in the Time article) it's disturbing to see a segregation trend starting. At the same time though, if it really is helping some students to do better, then maybe it is something to consider. Of course, there are always private schools to consider and some of those, I believe are all one sex, but then again not everyone can afford those. It sure does pose an arguement for on-line learning from your own home doesn't it? Yet, one has to consider if one spends all their time at home on the internet then where is the "real" social interaction occurring? That's part of the attraction for kids for going to school!

(*The Associated Press - from the Las Vegas Review-Journal)