(Name-mce) ListServ Where the boys aren't: Do single-sex schools prepare girls better for life?

Tue Sep 26 15:09:18 EDT 2006

Where the boys aren't: Do single-sex schools prepare girls better for
life?

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/d
isplay?slug=genschools&date=20060924&query=education

By Patti Jones

Special to The Seattle Times  September 24, 2006

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ELLEN M. BANNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Divya Bahl, left, Gena Brigham, Ankita Mishra and Lindsey Otta gathered
to talk over the last issue of the school newspaper in June. With the
exception of Otta, all were 2006 graduates of Forest Ridge School of the
Sacred Heart.

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ERIKA SCHULTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Juliana Shadlen (back to camera) talks with Ruhi Parashar, left, and Zoe
Ferrigno, right, at Beth's Cafe on Aurora Avenue North, a frequent
hangout of the girls during their Roosevelt High School years.

*                                 

Carla? You there? Remember how your mom used to threaten you whenever
you cursed or broke curfew back in junior high? How she'd say: "Do that
again, young lady, and we'll send you to [a certain all-girls' school]"?

Well, guess what? Attending a boy-less school might not have been the
living hell we all imagined. Hillary did it. Condoleezza did it. Melinda
(Gates) did it. And nowadays thousands of girls want a piece of what
those three dynamos had - namely, time spent learning in the absence of
guys.

The boom

Girls' schools - on the endangered list back in the equality-conscious
1970s - are now thriving. Well-established schools are seeing capacity
enrollments; new schools have opened in many cities. The No Child Left
Behind Act has fostered an increase in same-sex classes by making it
legally easier for public schools to offer them.

Information

www.singlesexschools.org <http://www.singlesexschools.org/> 

National Association for Single Sex Education presents its case, along
with resources.

www.aauw.org/newsroom/
news/national04.cfm <http://www.aauw.org/newsroom/news/national04.cfm> 

Association of University Women study

"We view this as a renaissance for girls' education," says Whitney
Ransome, co-executive director of the National Coalition of Girls'
Schools.

Close to home, Holy Names Academy on Capitol Hill, at a little over
$9,700 a pop, is "bursting at the seams"; Bellevue's century-old Forest
Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, where tuition's around $20,400, is in
the midst of a mini construction boom. And Tacoma's Annie Wright School
- the one Carla was threatened with years ago - has both full classrooms
and a full dorm (tuition: $17,000, or $34,000 if boarding, but, like
other area girls' schools, offers scholarships to boost social and
economic diversity).

And that's not counting the middle schools - Seattle Girls', Lake
Washington Girls Middle School in Seattle - or the single-sex classes
offered by St. Therese, St. Alphonsus, Madrona K-8, Thurgood Marshall
Elementary and other coed schools.

Famous same-sex school alumnae:

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Wellesley College 

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Catholic high school for girls
school in Denver

Astronaut Sally Ride, girls' school in Los Angeles 

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D.-N.Y., Wellesley College

Philantropist and wife of Bill, Melinda French Gates, Catholic high
school for girls in Dallas

Feminist/activist Gloria Steinem, Smith College 

Separation: spirit of the times?

Why all the interest now in same-sex ed? Talk to scholars and you hear:

As a society we're still confused in our attitudes about women. Legal
equality's been won; females are doing better than males in many ways:
better verbal-skills tests, fewer discipline problems, higher grades and
more high-school diplomas and bachelor's degrees.

But gender stereotypes persist, particularly when it comes to math,
science and leadership roles. Then there's sex. ...

As Stephanie Coontz, sociology professor at The Evergreen State College
in Olympia, says, "Girls are doing well academically in coed schools,
but they're also facing social pressures in the hypersexualized coed
atmosphere."

Haven from sex-saturated society

An earlier era often saw girls' schools as de facto chastity belts;
today's parents may see them as a haven from pressures brought on by a
sex-saturated media that's flummoxing young women. Recent research shows
more than half are stressed by pressure to be "hot" while still being
smart, independent and successful.

Add in our consumer culture accustomed to a zillion choices - education
included, particularly in Seattle, with one of the highest percentages
of private-school enrollment.

The result, Coontz says: "Instead of figuring out how to change the
school culture and treat people as individuals, we sidestep the issue
and separate the sexes."

Enter the girl-empowerment zone

Whether single-sex classrooms breed more academic successes is hard to
say, because reliable research is limited. Several studies back at least
the claim that students at girls' schools are less likely to see math
and science as "masculine."

For a first-hand look at one of these girl-empowerment zones, we visited
the lush, hilltop campus of Forest Ridge in Bellevue just before school
ended last June. Population: 360 girls in grades five through 12. There,
the student-body officers are girls, the top athletes are girls, the
computer nerds are girls, even the class clowns are girls.

"Without boys, we're less inhibited to be who we are and to say what's
on our minds," said Divya Bahl, a graduating senior who now attends
Boston University. "We don't hold back."

Neither do they take time from academics to fuss about looks. Forest
Ridge students wear uniforms most days. Typically they pull their hair
back into careless ponytails and don sweatshirts bearing slogans such as
"Life is short. Play hard."

"It's not like we don't care how we look; it's just that we have no one
to impress," explained student Alana Yee. "If boys were here, I'd take
longer to get ready in the morning. I'd even brush my hair [laugh]."

Not to say that these schools create a perfect, feminist utopia. Most
still battle with cliques, cattiness and Internet bullying. But without
boys the schools do seem, well, different.

"There's a lot less posturing going on, a lot less bravado" without its
typically male practitioners, said Forest Ridge male math teacher Chris
Pesce, who used to teach at coed Nathan Hale High School.

Inside Pesce's math class, 12 girls sat at tables of four to study for a
final exam. "I know how to do this! It's 10x minus 6 right?" yelled out
one student, then seeing that she'd made a mistake, let out a dramatic,
"Oh! I'm going to cry!"

"It's OK," soothed another girl. "We can help you."

Outside, a circle of girls tossed a ball during their lunch break.
Suddenly, one stopped the action and shouted: "Hey, Marlena. I'll switch
places with you because the sun is in your eyes and because I'm a nice
person!"

High alert: a boy on campus!

Girls here are not entirely cut off from boys. They meet guys at work,
after-school activities and joint social events with all-boys O'Dea High
School in Seattle. Yet many admit to an uneasiness around the opposite
sex. "I feel a little out of my element when I'm in a coed setting,"
confessed then-senior Gena Brigham.

Whenever a boy wanders onto campus, the school usually goes on high
alert, said math teacher Pesce. "Boys emit powerful radar here," he
explained. "The girls sense them, jump up and exclaim, 'There's a boy!'
The word carries through the campus, like a bird call."

What boys add

Is an all-girls school for everyone? A group of Roosevelt High seniors
sitting outside at lunchtime last June said no. "It could really mess up
your social life," warned Ruhi Parashar. Worse still, her friends said:
It wouldn't mirror the two-gender society that girls will graduate into.

"At coed schools, boys make you think in new ways," said Elaina
Schwennsen. "For example, we were talking in psychology class about
divorce, and the guys said, 'We don't know why the mother always gets
custody of the kids just because she gave birth to them.' ... One guy
got very emotional about this, and his opinion made me see things
differently."

Divya Bahl at Forest Ridge conceded that she often wished she could hear
a boy's perspective when her class discusses a novel.

"On the other hand, there are things we can discuss because men are not
here," she said. "For example, we were talking about nudes in our
art-history class and it would've been more uncomfortable if we had been
with men."

Can-do attitude

According to Forest Ridge students, the biggest benefit of all-girls
schools is the way they encourage a can-do attitude and boost girls'
self-esteem.

"Outside of school, I ran against a boy for the India Association
Board," Bahl said. "A lot of my friends from coed schools said, 'I don't
want to run because a boy is running and he seems so confident.' But I
didn't care." (She won.)

So would the Forest Ridge girls go on to single-sex colleges such as
Wellesley College or Smith College in Massachusetts? No way, said those
interviewed.

"I'm going to study engineering at Cal Tech, so you might argue that I'm
going to an all-male school," said Ankita Mishra with a laugh.

Said Gena Brigham, who's now attending University of San Francisco: "I
don't regret my time here, but I need to set myself up for the real
world."

Meanwhile, Roosevelt grad Juliana Shadlen is now at Sarah Lawrence
College in New York, which is about 76 percent female.

"I like the encouraging of women," she explained. "I'm looking forward
to going into a cocoon for four years to better myself and build up my
strength so that I'm a worthy competitor when I come out."

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