COEDUCATION VERSUS SINGLE SEX SCHOOLS

This essay is based on a task listed under argumentative essays on The Prop Room

Education is one of the most important services provided by the state. The aim is to furnish young people with the necessary skills and knowledge to become fully functioning and useful members of society. Education is traditionally provided in schools where in the past, all levels used to be in the same room working together. Nowadays, schools are more plentiful and better managed but there are two dominant systems: the more traditional single sex schools and the more progressive coeducational schools. Coeducational schools are, without a doubt, more appropriate in the modern world despite views to the contrary.

Advocates of single sex schools point to the well known argument that boys and girls think in different ways and traditionally have been good at different subjects; math’s and science in the case of boys versus languages and social sciences in the case of girls. Yet how much of this argument is based on fact and how much on social learning or social conditioning? The sharp rise in women scientists and male linguists only goes to prove the point. Plus of course where is the harm in having boys and girls together in one class so that they can help each other in their respective areas of strength?

Supporters of single sex schools also point to the fact that having boys and girls in the same class causes disruption as the early teens is when the two sexes first become interested in each other. It goes without saying that delaying the inevitable makes no sense and the sooner boys and girls learn to work and socialize together the better. Men and women coexist in modern society working side by side in factories, hospitals, companies and schools for instance. They socialize together in clubs, restraunts, movie theatres and the like. There is no point in segregating them throughout their formative years if we don’t want them to have serious relationship issues later in life. Why cause problems where none exist?

In conclusion, single sex schools are a flash back to the past and coeducational establishments should be the norm for the present to provide more harmony in the work place, the family and society. Men and women should learn to benefit from each other’s strengths and complement each other in an ever more complicated world.