Unexpected source of support for single-sex classrooms and schools

Unfortunately this opinion piece by an economics professor at Harvard in today's Boston Globe focuses on the aggression differences between boys and girls, not their learning style differences, but it makes some good points.


EDWARD L. GLAESER
Violence, learning, and the gender divide
By Edward L. Glaeser | November 2, 2007

RECENT STORIES about whether men and women think and learn differently because their brains are different have argued that any cognitive differences that may exist are small and that classrooms should not be divided by gender.

I agree with the view that teaching math in different ways to girls and boys is pernicious and silly. But schooling is about teaching socially productive citizenship as well as geometry, and the difference in male and female propensities toward self-destructive violence is no myth.

Men are more than eight times as likely as women to commit murder and more than 50 times as likely to engage in a gang-related killing. My gender commits 84 percent of all violent crimes. Young men are four times more likely than women to carry a gun and five times more likely to commit suicide.

The tendency of young men to be violent is not peculiarly American. A classic criminology textbook, "Principles of Criminology," notes that crime rates for men greatly exceed those for women "for all nations, for all communities within a nation, for all age groups, for all periods of history for which reliable statistics are available, and for all types of crime except those peculiar to females."

Recent research on suicide bombers by my colleague Effi Benmelech finds that more than 94 percent are men. Male violence is not even uniquely human. Richard Wrangham's superb book, "Demonic Males," is about murder among apes.

While male violence is universal, societies differ in their ability to channel that violence. With the right kinds of investment, male aggression can be put to good uses, such as winning the World Series and running hedge funds.

We are failing our young men because we have not made that investment. We have made our streets safer by incarcerating millions, more than 90 percent of whom are male, but we have inflicted a terrible cost on millions of lost boys.

Investing more in schools that provide both economic opportunity and social skills is an alternative to prisons in the fight against youth violence. But should those schools refuse to "sort students" on the basis of gender or should they recognize and react to the greater male propensity toward crime. There is no single, right answer and pragmatism, not doctrine, should shape our policies.

Sometimes, we should refuse to recognize gender and treat men and women identically. In other settings, it may make sense to use gender-specific tools to help violent young men and even to separate boys and girls. We shouldn't require teachers to communicate in the same way to girls and boys if more specialized messages can help build better connections with both genders.

Programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters, which has helped thousands of young people, have long used gender as a sorting mechanism. A big brother may find it easier to connect with an at-risk boy and that connection may end up saving the boy from self-destruction. Indeed, its website proclaims "though Big Brothers Big Sisters is always looking for volunteers from all walks of life, right now there is a greater need for men."

Single-sex schools are among the thorniest issues relating to gender and at-risk youth, and the evidence on such schools is murky. Many single-sex schools have been successful, but their success may tell us more about the children they admit than about the impact of the school.

Still, the magnitude of society's problems compels us to be open to educational innovation. While co-education is surely best for most Americans, we should also allow parents the opportunity to enroll their children in single-sex charter schools that give more discipline for boys, more safety for girls, and more targeted support for both genders. We should not rule out a single-sex program like Baltimore's Baraka School, which gave at-risk boys the chance to live and study on the Kenyan outback.

I want my daughter and son to be taught science and math in exactly the same way, but I will not be surprised if my son needs a little more help learning to control his teenage aggression. After all, I needed a little more help.

Edward L. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University, is director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.


© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Year II-Education of Black Male Youth

The second year of the Wheelock/Delores Walker Johnson Center for Leadership at Atlas Communities afternoon and all day sessions on the Education of Black Male Youth opened yesterday with a presentation by
Benjamin Wright Chief Administrative Officer of the Metro Nashville Schools and a leader in single sex education.
While the crowd of nearly 200 teachers administrators and students expected more specific talk about single sex schools and classes, Mr. Wright promised more of that for today's full day session and focused on specific issues in the education of Black male youth in any school.


Ben Wright told of his own personal journey from Mississippi to Palo Alto California where another transposed Mississipian, his math teacher, took special interest in him and provided a tutor so he could keep up with his studies. This taught him the efficacy of such tutoring. But America has changed since those times and young black men face special hurdles.
The talk focused on the de-traumatizing of Black male youth and also the de-traumatizing of their teachers.
As Wright sees it, Black boys come to class with a different experience than most teachers realize. They are not ready to receive them and perceive them as a threat. Black boys receive negative responses to their behavior early on, and by third grade many of them have given up on school.

Wright's message to teachers is avoid confronting these boys and instead empower them. Use them as active participants in the classroom. Make sure each has a job to do. Wright commented that "tough love" has nothing about love about it. Making kids conform for no reason creates problems.

Wright said that whether it's getting to school by walking in unsafe neighborhoods, or having long bus rides to comply with desegregation Black boys come with negative baggage, and they need to be de-traumatized before we can teach them. We also need to de-traumatize ourselves from whatever is bothering us to be able to be open with them.

Wright also pointed out that educating boys is a unversal problem and European and Asian countries find the graduation rate for boys below that of girls.

Every child comes to school ready to learn, but we are not at their readiness level.

Wright takes a different view on the issue of high school graduation, and feels we put too much emphasis on it. He feels we need to focus on getting a job and having good work habits. These kids see money as important, and do not see the connection with school. We should teach them to be entreprenaurs, with a strong work ethic.

4 points if you are working with Black boys:

1. You should have hope for them that goes beyond the neighborhood. Take them out of the neighborhood.

2. Be happy with yourself.

3. All parents do the best they can.

4. Know what resources are out there to help them besides you.

We want them to have the same hope for themselves as you have for them.

Q&A

Ben wright responded to the question " shouldn't these boys learn the system and operate within it i.e. sitting down when asked?" He feels the kids should boycott the system and not let it bring them down. De-traumatize the teachers and the justice forces. Don't expect what is unnecessary.

Single sex education."Most of our country's leader went to single sex schools without being the victims of stereotyping."

Don't teach kids to be black or white; teach them to be human beings.
As to feeling sorry for Black boys: Show understanding and empathy, not sympathy. Keep expectations high.
Wright also spoke of de-traumatizing adults so they can be more effective with kids.

He offered ways to keep parents involved in the school Have a good reason for parents to come to the schoo,l and when they get there be nice to them.

Wright prefers to have times available in the school day for kids to do homework. The school day should be enough.

As a school leader you should talk about a belief system: capacity to love and be loved. Create a family feeling with faculty and students and have no negative talk about kids.

Ron Walker closed the session by telling the prospective students in the audience that if they don't have a passion for teaching, they should not go into it. It's important but very hard and demanding, and kids need that passion from teachers.

Wheelock College announced it is committed to supporting this program for three years.

Next up: Gloria Ladson Billings "Teaching to Restore Black Boys' Childhood" November 13 & 14, 2007.

I solicit comments from anyone who attended today's all day session.