Coeducation at WT

Coeducation does not simply mean educating males and females in the same classrooms. It denotes a philosophy of schooling, learning, and equality. A coeducational school thinks deliberately and seriously about educating boys and girls together for their studies and their lives. Males and females can learn from each other by sharing their talents and intellect. A coeducational classroom creates a realistic environment that when combined with high expectations, provides an informed education.

• Girls and boys succeed in school when the elements of an informed education are present. Such elements include small classes and schools, equitable teaching practices, and a focused academic curriculum.
• Coeducational day schools offer the best replication of the broader society. Students who learn to work with members of the opposite gender clearly prepare for the wide world beyond school.
• In a healthy school environment, neither boys nor girls are compromised by their gender.
• Coeducation sends a strong message to young girls and boys of the fundamental compatibility of difference, equality, and achievement.
• Coeducation provides opportunities for schools to use the social dynamics that occur between and among boys and girls to prepare them for competition with each other in a roughly gender-balanced world.
• Understanding, respect, and collaboration between and among boys and girls are the best foundation for life in the real world.
• Gender-specific institutions represent a fraction of private schools because students and parents have seen that coeducation serves the greater goals of education in the long run.
• Despite what single-sex schools would like us to believe, girls do excel in coeducational settings - particularly in small classes with teachers who are sensitive to the "gender gap," and where all students are encouraged to participate in discussions, hand-on experimentation, and team projects.
• Boys and girls have different interests, strengths, weaknesses and develop at different rates and these are the causes of gender different academic outcomes.
• The American Association of University Women Education Foundation (AAUW) states that there is no evidence in general that single-sex education works or is better for girls than coeducation. Read the AAUW Press Release Report Finds Separating by Sex Not the Solution to Gender Inequity in School

What the Research Shows

A 1998 study by Carole Shmurak looked at four schools, two of which were coeducational and two of which were all girls' schools. Her research showed that strong students had similar experiences at both coeducational and all girls' schools. Athletic students felt they received more support and encouragement at the coeducational schools. Girls at the coeducational schools tended to take more science courses and do better in the college admission process. Statistical analysis from her study shows that graduates of coeducational schools were more likely than graduates of all-girls' schools to have careers in law, computers, scientific research, and psychology.

Other benefits of coeducation for both male and female students include:

• learning to be more flexible in their learning style and in their communication style,
• hearing and responding to a diversity of viewpoints,
• getting beyond stereotypes of the opposite sex, and
• learning how to collaborate and compete in the same classroom.

In her research Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender, and the Social Order, sociologist Cynthia Epstein found "many social science studies (of sex based differences) do not support the idea that deep-rooted male and female natures require separate education, or that segregated education can provide members of each sex with the same opportunities and development of skills."

Concerns about gender bias in schools tend to center around math and science courses. In Separate-sex Science Shortchanges Students, a study by Jeffery Weld, he states that separate classes do not compensate for curricular and behavioral deficiencies in the way math and science are taught. Weld's solution to the problem of gender bias is to attack it at the core, "through workshops, conferences, and college courses that emphasize pro-active gender-equity techniques for all teachers."

In her report, The Trouble with Single-sex Schools, Wendy Kaminer revealed research demonstrating that many women who attended all-female institutions disliked competing with men intellectually. The women felt comfortable, "being smart during the week and being pretty on weekends." Further investigations found that all-female institutions embraced and exercised traditional gender roles by allowing "females and males to exist for each other solely as dates, not intellectual peers or equals." Single-sex education shies away from the inequalities of society and overprotects females. Coeducation confronts these inequalities, which allows females to effectively overcome them by learning to deal with the challenges of feeling self-conscious. Coeducational environments encourage females to compete with males, and females perform better when challenged by male and females talents.

Robert Sternberg, professor of psychology and education at Yale University studied self-esteem in young women and found:

• Single-sex classes became so comfortable and convenient that the women lost any ability to complete academically or socially with males.
• The coed environment encourages females to compete with males. Females perform better when challenged by the complete spectrum of male and female talents and intellect.
• The classrooms of youth are the preparation for real world encounters in later life.
• Single-sex education hides from the inequalities of society and over protects females. Coeducation confronts these inequalities allowing females to effectively battle and overcome them by learning to deal with being self-conscious.
• Males and females can learn from each other by pooling their talents and intellect.