It’s about time

Last week the Department of Education loosened the limits on same-sex education, which opens up new possibilities for public schooling for the first time in a generation. This is a good thing for the American public, and this move should be welcomed, not shunned. Same-sex education can be a great tool in education, and I speak from first-hand experience, having attended an all-boys Catholic Jesuit high school.

Reflecting on my four years of high school, I would not have changed my decision to go to an all-boys school. Throughout my four years there, I feel that I have grown beyond what I could have at a coed school, and I made long-lasting friendships that just could not be formed elsewhere. It was an experience like no other, and the intangibles of my education are too numerous to list.

By going to an all-male high school, I was able to work to my fullest potential, and not have to worry about the societal pressures that are brought on by women. There were many of us at my school that were free to become a scholar, or a tech-geek, or an actor, and not need to worry about what others thought of us. Our high school also had an award-winning literary magazine, and our chorus program grows each year and continues to perform outside of school functions. It is not likely that any of this would be the same had it occurred within the context of a coed school. And, according to an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald, boys attending same-sex schools become “more sensitive men,” more polite, and end up more confident around women, because they do not feel a need to be more masculine than the other guy.

Some claim that same-sex schooling does not “adequately” prepare one for the real world, because you have no exposure to the opposite sex. Well, this is not true. My high school, for one, frequently had some events where the guys from my school and the women from Milwaukee’s all-girls school could interact and meet each other. In addition to that, we did not exist in a vacuum. We knew (and kept in contact with) the girls we knew from grade school, or people we met on club sports teams. On the weekends and during the week, there was ample time to interact with women. Besides, this is a red herring argument. If you need to be prepared for the “real world,” then every school should be required to have .95 boys for each girl, because according to the CIA World Factbook, that is how the population is distributed in America.

There are some, however, that feel that same-sex schooling will only lead to discrimination against women, because it is Male-dom’s task in life to perpetually find ways to oppress women. That, of course, is a bogus assertion, and should not be seriously considered. If anything, we should all look to the poor achievement of males in school, and put them on an equal setting as females. In the article “Lost Boys” by Amy Benfer, she describes how there may not have been that large of a gender gap in schooling, and that feminists pushed boys aside to place a higher emphasis on girls in school.

There are also those who claim that there is no distinct difference in having a same-sex school. Well then, I must ask, why is it so terrible to not have it? Why can’t parents have the option to send their child to a single-sex school? Why can’t they choose to have their child educated where they want and how they want? If there truly is no difference in the schools, parents should be allowed that chance, and the government has no right to say they can or cannot.

My four years at the all-boys high school is a time I will never forget. I would not change it for the world, and I do not regret my decision to go there. I still attended formal dances, I still can interact with women, there was no negative impact on me in regards to social development. It’s high time the United States government allowed parents the choice to send their children to a public same-sex high school. I know I will recommend it, and I plan on sending my children to same-sex high schools. And you know what? I can recite some kings of England from 1500 and on. I can even recite it to a girl.