Should we bring back more single sex schools

[Ddakji]

Slightly following on from some of the threads about Adolescence (which I haven’t seen), I started wondering - has the demise of boys’ schools negatively impacted boys?

I’d be really interested to hear from others, especially the parents of boys - I have one DD (15h who’s been in mixed sex schools most of the time but is now in a girls’ school.

Hmm...I went to one of those and there was an active program to recruit people with financial help.

I suppose a control rest would be to see if similar coed schools produce girls who are equally, more or less successful and mentally healthy?

I think pps comparing to their experiences in 70s-90s may overlool that now a lot more children do many extracurriculars and meet the opposite sex there. Girls' schools often twin for music, drama etc also.

This comment is a bit odd : ' And decided she was a lesbian whilst in Y9.

DS now - after Uni and work realised that women are not the enemy. And is a much more rounded human being.

DD has given up being a lesbian for the moment and has a lovely boyfriend.'

Are you implying going to a single sex school somehow made your daughter believe she was lesbian? Plenty of girls who grow up to be straight have teenage crushes on girls, I don't think that's confined to girls at girls' schools.

And anyhow there's nothing wrong with being lesbian. It's not something you 'give up', it's more accurate to say that adolescent perceptions of who you're attracted can fluctuate no matter what orientation you end up being.

I've taught in mixed schools, a boys' school and a couple of girls' schools. My ds currently goes to the 'brother' school of the girls' school where I teach, but he only went there in the 6th form.

Anecdotal, obviously, but the boys' school is much more old-school, robust and hands-off than my school. We have a more nurturing and sensitive approach. They have a mixed 6th form and some of our girls go there, but they don't always like it, as they are used to the nicer atmosphere of the girls' school. Ds likes it, but I think that younger, more sensitive boys might struggle.

And whilst we certainly had plenty of sexism in the past, the toxic masculinity and misogyny we have now seems of a far more vicious nature.

Isn't this just the perception given by social media though? Half of the stuff people handwring about online isn't evident to me in the real world. Like, I'm sure it happens but I'd not be particularly aware of it without reading stuff online.

Young men engage in much less drinking/drugs/fighting than they did a few decades ago (e.g. in the 90s) and nowadays people get cancelled for saying things you would've seen on comedy shows in decades past.

I think the rise of people like Andrew Tate is more a pushback from those annoyed that this type of conduct is now frowned upon. The common theme in all that stuff seems to be an encouragement to say "fuck em, us men will act however we please". It's all about 'reclaiming the alpha male' as they see it.

For example, I work in construction. Not in the office. Actually doing onsite stuff. I've heard so many women who've clearly never set foot on a construction site opining about the terrible sexism in my sector and how they could never possibly do that job (often in the same breath as complaining about unequal representation).

Meanwhile I'm actually doing the job and mostly loving it. But if I'd read all that stuff online first I'd have possibly been scared right off the idea. I just love big trucks and heavy machines so I went for it and it's so much better than sitting at a desk and navigating cliquey work environments/office politics.

I always hated it in my graduate job when all the senior men dumped their cups/plates in the sink after a meeting for the women to wash up and nobody dared call out the 'very important man' because they all wanted a promotion. And the fact that it was always a female secretary/PA making the coffee and taking lunch orders.

Can't say being in a single sex school was better or worse than the school I went to or my child went to, but being female has never been an excuse for me for not achieving what i want to to achieve

Yes! Girls only schools excellent for girls in my personal experience, and many older women I've met agree. Unfortunately boys only seems to produce dreadful men, like Boris Johnson and his ilk.
I don't understand why teachers in boys only schools can't seem to civilise them.

My local state schools were single sex, I fought to send them out of area, wasn’t a good fit for my DD’s, both are nd, interests are more “masculine” and it was definitely the right choice, no way would they have had the opportunities in science at the girls school because they pushed them towards languages and humanities. One of my dc does a job not even open to women when she started school.

Whenever i talk about the advantages of girls only schools, which i benefitted from, literally everyone says "yes, but girls are SO bitchy". Well maybe but they don't send dick pics to other girls, or sexually harass or assault each other on the whole , so no contest I'd say. People seriously underestimate the harm teenage boys can inflict on girls, and in fact upon women generally.

Both my kids (boys) are in a single sex grammar and it’s been the best choice we (kids and I) made.

I really think there should be a choice. In many areas there isn't.

I have friends who moved precisely because their local area was single sex and it wasn't suiting their kids.

The problem with this take, which is not an uncommon one since it's evidence backed on an individual results basis, is that on a macro policy level it requires a cohort of sacraficial girls to provide the coed environment for boys to flourish in. One in which they are likey to be a minority and therefore face even more issues than a current roughly 50/50 environment.

We went to view an all girls primary school. The head started off “girls flourish without being distracted by boisterous boy behaviour”. I dont have boys but i do know not every boy is boisterous.