Alabama Schools Use Gurian Institute Techniques

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Separate Classes: Two Jefferson County Schools Offer Same-sex Education

By Daniel Connolly - Birmingham Post-Herald  - 8/9/04

When school starts today at Rudd Middle school in Pinson, boys will be separate from girls in most of their classes. And Brandon Vaughn, who was waiting in line for late registration last week, wasn't happy about it.
   
"I think it's stupid," said the blond eighth-grader, who at 15 already is more than 6 feet tall. "It just is. What do they think to accomplish by separating them?"
   
But the school's principal, Jackie Dye, hopes the separation will foster better academic performance.
   
"We had already realized that boys have one way of learning and girls have one way of learning," she said.
   
The goal is to teach to the strengths of each gender, she said. And it's also to ease the hormone-loaded tension of the years of puberty - because fear blocks learning, she said.
   
"You don't know who you are," Dye said. "Every day you wake up you're a different person because your body has changed."
   
An increasing number of public schools in Alabama and nationwide are trying out the single-sex mode, which has a long tradition in private and religious schools. The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act and adjustments to the federal Title IX in March make it easier for schools to experiment with separating the genders.
   
Rudd Middle School and the new North Jefferson County Middle School are the two schools in the system that are instituting the changes this year. Most of the school system's nearly 40,000 students will continue in mixed classes.
   
Not only will Rudd's 902 students in grades six through eight be separate in class, they'll mostly be in different sections of the school. However, mixed classes will be offered through the honors and gifted classes and electives such as art, theater, band and physical education. For Dye, part of the motivation for making the switch comes from a string of poor student performances.
   
In 2003 there were 51 students out of 280 in the seventh grade who failed one or more classes.  It was an unusually high number, she said. Major factors included distractions, discipline problems and failure to turn in homework, even if they had done it.
   
Separating the genders should cut down on discipline problems, she said. Dye has a book on her desk called "Boys and girls Learn Differently! A guide for teachers and parents." She recently attended a seminar by its author, Michael Gurian in Colorado springs, Colo. One of his associates came last week to teach techniques to some of her teachers and to give a talk for parents.
   
The illustration on the cover of the book shows a girl studiously reading a textbook while grinning boys fool around with three dimensional models that appear to represent molecules.
   
The picture illustrates a few key principles, Dye said: Girls have a more quiet learning style since they develop language skills earlier and can use books more effectively.
   
Boys learn better when they have something in their hands to manipulate, she said. They also work better when they are able to move around.
   
Approaches to literature would be different, too. In all-male classes boys would read "boy literature," like "Call of the Wild" by Jack London.
   
Dye said she would probably do less writing in a class for boys than in a class for girls, since girls are stronger writers.
   
Of course, there are some boys who are better at language than math and vice versa. "Our teachers are not trained to teach one gender or the other. They are trained to teach the mind. I believe teachers will see the individual's talent.
   
Some area schools have engaged in the experiment already. Hemphill Elementary school in the Birmingham Public Schools system started single-sex classes in August. In early March, teachers and faculty members went to Odenville Middle School in St. Clair County to see how that school has changed after introducing single-sex classes. "They had cut their failure rate tremendously," she said.
   
The American Association of University Women said in 1998 that academic data on single-sex education was inconclusive, the New York Times reported in May. However, other psychologists said the advantage of single-sex education is that both boys and girls feel more comfortable learning with their own gender.
   
Parents waiting in line last week had mixed reactions, too. Mindy Davis, 42, in line to register her children for school, said boys and girls need to learn to get along. "The outside world is not restricting boys from girls," she said.
   
Phillip Winslett, 41, was more positive. "It doesn't really bother me," he said. His son, 14-year-old Blake, is a good student, he said. "It's probably not a bad idea, distractionwise. I'm sure they don't like it very much because they don't get to socially mingle all the time."