Segregation In Public Schools

When a person imagines that there is segregation taking place in public schools whether in classrooms or throughout the entire campus, it can be imagined that this segregation is something that is negative similar to the views of the author Michael Kimmel. This negative connotation to segregation in education systems come from the deep rooted American history of African Americans and Caucasians not being allowed to attend classes together through the public school system. However the author, Michael Gilbert wants for parents across America to know that these gender separated classrooms are nothing to fear. Though it is obvious that the two do not agree on the idea of segregated schools, they also have some very different underlying views and
concerns based on what is essential in this debate. In Michael Gilbert’s article “Single-sex Schools Help Children Thrive,” he points out that a major flaw in the public school system is that it does not adapt to the fact that it is teaching both male and female students.
He continues on to argue that schools are not paying attention to the fact that males and females that are school aged do not learn the same as stated in paragraph number three of his article where he states that “There's a problem when you bleach out gender differences: boys and girls are not the same. They do not develop in the same way or at the same time” (Gilbert, Single-sex). Toward the end of his article, he also goes on to say that schools that practice single-sex classroom education often times have higher test grade averages as well as grade point averages. In this article, it becomes clear that Gilbert’s main concerns are of the education of male students in
education. To challenge that statement, Michael Kimmel created the article “Don’t segregate boys and girls in classrooms,” to show that sex-segregated classrooms can have their own fare share of problems. In the beginning of his article, the author makes a point to bring up the fact that sex-segregated schooling is something that has been carried out throughout history from centuries. This hint of information plays in perfectly with the idea that sex-segregated schools can lead to a rise in gendered stereotypes coming from males. An example of this is given in paragraph six of her article where he explains that “Single-sex classes reinforce harmful stereotypes about boys and girls” (Kimmel, Don’t segregate). Although the main concern in this article seems to come from the stereotyping of gender, he does make sure to include something to counter argue the claims made by Gilbert where he comments that there is no real research that single-sexed class rooms were the sole reason for increased grades in any specific gender segregated classrooms whereas it could have been a change in the teaching or other influential factors. When putting both articles under a microscope, there are a few things that become clear about both articles.
For instance, in both articles there is at least one paragraph that talks about gendered stereotyping. The interesting thing about these to articles using similar terms however, is that they seem to use the terms differently. As an example, a reading of the articles can look at their ideas of “sex-stereotyping”. In the article written by Gilbert, it seems that he views sex-stereotypes as the way that children are being expected to learn and retain information. He explains that things are not being taught in a way that would make sense to both genders separately and that single-sex classrooms can fix that problem. However, he later goes on to say that the students that are most benefitted from single-sex classroom education are those who are female or of a minority group which seemingly contradicts a bit of his arguments that say that these higher grades are shown strictly because of the separation of sexes, not race. Kimmel’s definition of sex-stereotype seems to follow along closer to the definition given by most sources that offer the definition. All similarly state that a sex-stereotype is aimed toward women with the belief that they are inferior in things such as education in maths or sciences and that men are superior in this as well as other areas of life. However, the both author’s articles seem to focus on only one area specifically. Kimmel’s being sex
stereotypes and Gilbert’s being toward the concern of males falling behind females. Though these two seem to write about the same concept in opposing views, it is very obvious that different concerns come first for both sides of the argument.