College writing

According to The Atlantic,   34 single-gender schools became operated in 2004.  Ten years later that number has jumped, According to The New York Times,  in 2014  850 schools nationwide became single-gender schools.  Which is a big jump in just ten years.  When I think of single-gender school I cannot relate. I’ve been in a coed school From pre-school all the way until now in college. I have never thought of going to an all-girls school. But I knew someone who was in an all-girls school, and a teacher that taught at an all-girls school. When talking to her about it one day she told me how the girls do so much better and excel in their education by just being in a school of their same gender. It made sense to me, growing up in schools sometimes guys can intimate you or you get scared to ask a question because you’re scared you will sound dumb in front of the boy. I’ve had this experience many times. Same-sex schools work, But how?

A hypothesis that many believe in is that, males and females brains are wired differently, the way their brain functions and develops are not alike.  Boys struggle behind girls when it comes to testing and reading.  Also, boys have a higher chance of facing disciplinary problems in the future than girls. I think this has an effect on education. If you have mixed genders in class and the boys fools around or give the teacher a problem it stops the learning and just causes distractions. Reading this from an article made me think. I know that when I was in school, girls always seemed to be more mature than the boys were.  Knowing this I was able to relate that to how boys and girls are wired differently in the way they learn. It makes sense, Girls might absorb information in a different way than boys just by how much more mentally mature they are.

When looking at the statistics of single-gender schools vs. Coed schools. In 2010 78% of students graduated from a coed school.  82% of students graduated from a single gender school. The numbers aren’t far apart but it definitely says something. When it comes to standardizing testing, there is no surprise that many students don’t do well. In a coed school, 37% of the students had a reasonable test score. In single-gender schools, 86% of the students had a reasonable test school. There is a big jump in those numbers. Which has to mean that single-gender schools are beneficial. It is not surprising that more people are having their kids go to a single gender school because they think that is going to benefit them to excel in their education. But there are always people who disagree.

The New York Times interviewed a group of individuals about this topic. While a good amount of people thought that this was a good idea, a woman names Ms. Bigler stated ‘ You say there is a problem with sexism and instead of addressing sexism, you just remove one sex.  Reading that made me think and in a way I do agree with what she has to say. It’s like sweeping the problem under the rug. But the focus of having single-gender schools is not about the sexism but about the opportunity to excel more in education.

There is also an issue that boys struggle behind girls when it comes to testing and reading.  Also, boys have a higher chance of facing disciplinary problems in the future than girls. I think this has an effect on education. If you have mixed genders in class and the boys fools around or give the teacher a problem it stops the learning and just causes distractions. I have had this many times throughout my years in school. And it goes make a difference when you are trying to learn something and pay attention.  It has been proven children become easily distracted when in a classroom with the opposite gender. Especially when it comes to high school. There are a lot of hormone changes going on in girls and guy and emotions everywhere. It all becomes a gid distraction from why the reason you’re actually in school, to learn.

I think girls will most likely benefit from single-gender schools than boys would. Single gender schools are not a bad thing. Like anything else in life, there are pros and cons. But when it comes to education and your future I think the best thing is to go with what is going to make you learn the best way and have a higher chance of succeeding in. On whether I think it is a good thing or bad thing. I’ve never been in a single gender school I’ve always been in a mixed gender school.  I do think that maybe if I was in one it would’ve helped me academically a lot more. But I don’t think that would be for me.

Two single-gender schools right beside each other. To the Right is an all-boys school, and to the left is an all girls school. The two schools get out the same time every day at 2:30pm.   Two girls walking out from the left, they are in their own world talking about the new drama tv that is airing on tv tonight. The boys walking out from the right also in their own world, talking about talking on Xbox later and playing some call of duty. As the boys and girls walked out of their building neither one really paying attention to the other as if they weren’t there at all.  A representation of how single-gender schools may make it harder to interact with the other gender.

Boys being boys. This game was the most important game of the season. If they won they would be the new champions of their division.  It was getting close to the end of the game, the teams were tied. But then all of a sudden the green team scored 3 points. With 5 minutes on the clock. The red team was desperate to do whatever they need to get 3 more points and then win the game. One player from the red team started to tackle the boy with the ball, He was not going to give up. He was going to do everything in his power to get that ball. They started hitting each other, pushing, and eventually more boys became involved and it was a disaster.  Representation of how rough boys can be, and how different compared to girls.

Four girls, they all attend a private school. Walking from one building to the next. They all laugh with each other, telling stories and funny jokes. They spill some of the drama that’s going around their all-girls school. All are very bubbly and excited to be surrounded by their girlfriends.   A representation of how girls can act when they are just with other girls, they can be themselves.

The class clown they call him. Always making funny faces, being silly. Always trying to draw the attention on him. Even when the teacher is teaching a lesson or especially something important, he will say anything to make a distraction and the class laugh. Taking time away from actually learning in the class. Most of the students like him, but the ones eager to learn become frustrated. Example of how boys mostly are the class clowns and how it affects the classroom.

A classroom full of young boys. They are all very eager to learn. Participating in the classroom with the subject being taught. They are all focusing and having no distractions like having girls around them or trying to be funny to impress the girls. They simply just be themselves. They actually pay attention, even surprising the teacher with what they comprehended.  An example of how much better single genders can learn without any distractions.

An all girls school, just like any other school they have sports and clubs. One thing big at this school is their school choir. Mostly all the girls participate in it. Looking at the paper with the lyrics in front of them, singing loudly. Some even laugh at themselves for the way the sound, especially when their voice cracked.  The girls feel like they can be themselves and laugh at themselves without having to worry about what the boy next to them is thinking.

According to The Atlantic,   34 single-gender schools became operated in 2004.  Ten years later that number has jumped, According to The New York Times,  in 2014  850 schools nationwide became single-gender schools.  Which is a big jump in just ten years.  When I think of single-gender school I cannot relate. I’ve been in a coed school From pre-school all the way until now in college. I have never thought of going to an all-girls school. But I knew someone who was in an all-girls school, and a teacher that taught at an all-girls school. When talking to her about it one day she told me how the girls do so much better and excel in their education by just being in a school of their same gender. It made sense to me, growing up in schools sometimes guys can intimate you or you get scared to ask a question because you’re scared you will sound dumb in front of the boy. I’ve had this experience many times. Same-sex schools work, But how?

A hypothesis that many believe in is that, males and females brains are wired differently, the way their brain functions and develops are not alike.  Boys struggle behind girls when it comes to testing and reading.  Also, boys have a higher chance of facing disciplinary problems in the future than girls. I think this has an effect on education. If you have mixed genders in class and the boys fools around or give the teacher a problem it stops the learning and just causes distractions. Reading this from an article made me think. I know that when I was in school, girls always seemed to be more mature than the boys were.  Knowing this I was able to relate that to how boys and girls are wired differently in the way they learn. It makes sense, Girls might absorb information in a different way than boys just by how much more mentally mature they are.

When looking at the statistics of single-gender schools vs. Coed schools. In 2010 78% of students graduated from a coed school.  82% of students graduated from a single gender school. The numbers aren’t far apart but it definitely says something. When it comes to standardizing testing, there is no surprise that many students don’t do well. In a coed school, 37% of the students had a reasonable test score. In single-gender schools, 86% of the students had a reasonable test school. There is a big jump in those numbers. Which has to mean that single-gender schools are beneficial. It is not surprising that more people are having their kids go to a single gender school because they think that is going to benefit them to excel in their education. But there are always people who disagree.

The New York Times interviewed a group of individuals about this topic. While a good amount of people thought that this was a good idea, a woman names Ms. Bigler stated ‘ You say there is a problem with sexism and instead of addressing sexism, you just remove one sex.  Reading that made me think and in a way I do agree with what she has to say. It’s like sweeping the problem under the rug. But the focus of having single-gender schools is not about the sexism but about the opportunity to excel more in education.

There is also an issue that boys struggle behind girls when it comes to testing and reading.  Also, boys have a higher chance of facing disciplinary problems in the future than girls. I think this has an effect on education. If you have mixed genders in class and the boys fools around or give the teacher a problem it stops the learning and just causes distractions. I have had this many times throughout my years in school. And it goes make a difference when you are trying to learn something and pay attention.  It has been proven children become easily distracted when in a classroom with the opposite gender. Especially when it comes to high school. There are a lot of hormone changes going on in girls and guy and emotions everywhere. It all becomes a gid distraction from why the reason you’re actually in school, to learn.

I think girls will most likely benefit from single-gender schools than boys would. Single gender schools are not a bad thing. Like anything else in life, there are pros and cons. But when it comes to education and your future I think the best thing is to go with what is going to make you learn the best way and have a higher chance of succeeding in. On whether I think it is a good thing or bad thing. I’ve never been in a single gender school I’ve always been in a mixed gender school.  I do think that maybe if I was in one it would’ve helped me academically a lot more. But I don’t think that would be for me.

Education has always been something that I’ve been interested in. I was the girl who loved going to school, even at a young age I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and to make a difference. I had the opportunity to go back to my high school, Bishop Connolly High School, and observe a class.

I visited my old history/ American government teacher, Mr. Vieira.  He is a teacher that is filled with knowledge and wisdom, and his classes for me at least I always enjoyed. I sat in on an American Government honors class. As soon as I walked in I saw Mr. Vieira. He stood tall with a striped button up shirt, dress pants, and his grey hair combed back like it always was. Every student that walked in looked the same, girls wearing a skirt and an Oxford or a polo. Boys wearing khakis with an Oxford or polo. They all sat down at the desks waiting for the lecture to begin. Looking around the class I noticed each individual. A girl with curly red hair was opening her notebook and looking through it. The boy next to her with the blonde hair pushed to the side with black square shaped glasses was on his Macbook typing away.   Each student was sitting at a table, the tables were shaped like a U. Mr. Veiera’s desk was right in the middle of the classroom facing all of the students.  Right behind his desk was a screen where a power point would be presented. As I started to look around more I  noticed this class was a large size, around 24 students.

Mr. Vieria started to begin class. He began talking about the bill of rights and amendments as the powerpoint started. Looking around most all of the students seemed to be engaged in the powerpoint. Either typing away on their Computers, Highlighting in their printed out powerpoint, or writing down notes.  Mr. Veiria interacted with the students a lot, asking many questions like what is the bill of rights? what are the 2nd amendments?  When was the bill of rights written?  Multiple students would raise their hands and answer the question correctly.  After that, the powerpoint went on discussing the different amendments. Mr. Vieira would even state some facts that he knew about certain amendments.

Class went on and there were about 10 minutes of class left. Mr. Vieira stopped going over the powerpoint and he sat down at his desk in the middle of the room. Students started to pack up putting their notebooks in their backpacks, put their computers in their cases.  Mr. Veiria then started to ask the students how was their weekend? Most students blurted out good.  He then said Well if it was good then what did you guys do? A girl was Brown straight hair raised her hand. Her name was Sarah, she said that she went to New Hampshire for the weekend and went ziplining.  A couple other students shared their stories of what they did for the weekend. Then the loud bell rang at 9:25am and the class was over. Students all walked out into the tiny hallway and were on their way to the next class.

Math, a complex subject that most of us hate doing or aren’t that great at it. While some are good at math, I was never that person. I struggled with math all my life, it also seems like many Americans are bad at math. We’re a culture that makes it okay to be bad at math. But is that okay?

In ” Why do Americans stink at math?” By Elizabeth green. Discusses what most young American students go through. It is not uncommon for students to not do well in math. Within this article,  the author discusses  Takahashi in 1978, a college student in Tokyo, and his mission to make math become easier to learn, with different ways of teaching it.

Having a desire to make learning math easier for students, he became the only thing he thought would do that.  Akihiko Takahashi became an elementary school teacher, but in Japan, he taught college students who aspired to become teachers as well.  He brought teaching to another level, teaching like no one before. He turned his classroom into a laboratory.  He decided to change the way students should study, instead of having them memorize equations and practice problems, just like how we do in American schools now.  He decided to have discussions among the class, and by doing this having the students work out the problems themselves.   Over the next 12 years, the Japanese educational system used this approach when it came to teaching math.  In 1991, at the age of 58, he had an opportunity to teach in America, a school run by Japanese.  He had a desire to be the center of new math.  He started to visit American schools, he would see that Americans had this dream way to teach math but they would fail.

American teachers failed guidance,  were unprepared, they were damaging students more than they were helping them.  A reform to change math but it’s without a good system for helping teachers be able to learn to teach them.  Teachers are doing different types of training constantly to keep up with what’s new and learning it themselves, so how can they teach it? I have experienced this many times. I’ve had teachers tell the class that they learned this new concept and a new way to teach but it never helped any of the students.   One of my teachers was taught a new way to do an algebra problem, but instead of trying to help they just made the class more confused. It only made math 10x harder. I understand trying to educate teachers more that way they can educate us and make our generation better than there’s. Though it is not helping, from experience. I think teachers need to know concepts fully before deciding to teach it. Students know don’t know basic math concepts like how to multiply or divide, use arithmetic and applying it to daily life. Teachers are unprepared, setting the children back in their education.

In countries like Japan, they have a similar approach but their success with it is incredible, while in America maybe we aren’t suited for this just yet. On an average test, two-thirds of fourth graders and eighth graders are not skilled in math.  Same goes with on multiple choice test, the students could not comprehend the question.  Even in our home state of Massachusetts, one of the states highest performing with math, the average student is two years behind in math, versus in other countries like Japan. The unschooled are more capable of math that’s complex than the students who have been taught it. The students being taught aren’t comprehended it. Instead, they are only getting more confused, and they aren’t learning much at all.

Almost all of the American math classes have the same structure and follow the same pattern.  We are focusing on procedures but not that the procedures mean.  Students aren’t able to apply the problem strategy to new problems. I dealt with that constantly with math through the years. American institutions that have charged teachers to learn new procedures in math have shown unable to do it.  If teachers are not getting the right training then they are unable to teach math the right way or understand it themselves.  The training is weak and just leading to inefficient teachers. As a teacher, you have the power in your hands to educate the next generation. It is your job to bring them on the path of success, if you’re failing by teaching them, then what’s your purpose? I personally would like if math would be taught the way it is taught in Japan in America. I feel being taught math over the years that we are just given a problem and have to solve it on your own. By doing this I’m not learning the steps and what each of them means to solve problems.  A lesson that Japan has taught the united states is that there is a possibility of change, that change can be made.  It will take time to train teachers in this way to benefit the students, it is far from an overnight process, but it can get done. The education system in the united states needs to change, we need to improve our math skills and the way math is being taught. It is only going to keep hurting students like me who are not strong in math.

” Gender Segregation ” https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2010/gender-segregation-separate-but-effective

” single Gender in public schools ” https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/single-gender-public-schools-in-5-charts.html

” Coed versus single- sex ed ”  https://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/02/coed.aspx

” Single -sex education: Pros And Cons” http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/singleeduc.pdf

” The resurgence of single-sex education ” https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/12/the-resurgence-of-single-sex-education/421560/

” single – sex education  versus coeducation in adolescence ” https://thesanfordschool.asu.edu/acces/evidence-based-answers/single-sex-education-vs-coeducation