Constantly debating the usefulness of single-sex schooling.

Having taught eighth grade at a co-ed public school, I can see the benefits of single-sex. The boys were totally distracted because the girls mature faster (mentally and physically), so the girls were all gorgeous and dressing (what I considered) inappropriately for school. Consequently the boys did what eighth grade boys do best: act like complete idiots competing for attention from girls who were totally not interested (they were interested in the high school boys, because middle school boys are like so totally immature, you know?). At a single-sex private school that requires uniforms, you don't deal with those distractions on a regular basis. The girls have no boys to impress, so they rarely worry about hair and makeup and things like that (we're lucky they shower once or twice each week). They roll out of bed, into their uniforms, put their hair up in some form of ponytail/bun/rat's nest and call it done. In class they aren't afraid of sounding too smart in front of the boys, or too dumb, or whatever, because there are no boys. It can be a really great thing.

The problem with a single-sex environment is, the girls go CRAZY when a boy is introduced into the mix in any way. Once, we had a student step in front of a MOVING BUS to try to see a boy across the street. If she hadn't been yanked back by a teacher, she'd have been a smear on the concrete. They lose whatever intelligence they have as soon as they see a boy. I can't open the mini blinds on my classroom windows because my room overlooks the area where the lower and middle schools have their recess, and the girls will actually look at and squeal about the eighth grade boys (whom they wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot pole when they were actually IN eighth grade, because middle school boys are like totally immature, you know?). It hurts my head. We had some boys from a local (single-sex private) school come as an a capella group to perform for us. Poor kids. The girls couldn't keep quiet. They kept giggling and pointing and whispering to each other. Imagine how those boys felt. Standing on a stage in front of 400 people is intimidating. Standing on a stage in front of your peers is equally so. Standing in front of all those girls, about to do something as uncool as "singing" must have been nightmarish. The girls didn't seem to understand that, since the boys were singing without music, the girls should keep quiet so they boys can hear themselves and each other. They did really well in spite of all that, but I couldn't help feeling sorry for them.

I think the lack of boys is one reason the girls do such stupid things when they are with the boys, like being promiscuous and stuff like that. They think they need to pack as much co-edness into their lives as possible when they get the chance.

So I can't decide which is better, a co-ed environment or a single-sex one. From a strictly educational standpoint, the same sex environment is great, because it is purely academic. But from a social development standpoint, it seems like more frequent CONTROLLED contact with boys might improve their uncontrolled contact with boys at other times. I don't know. Maybe I'm just old and cranky.