Single sex schools: Classic or Dud?

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I think I can spot a girl who went to a single-sex school a mile off.

― Nick, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Loathsome institutions.

So you want your child to be educationally advanced at the sacrifice of being socially retarded.

Bah.

― Trevor, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Boys - DUD, according to the vast majority of friends who went through it. Girls - All my female friends were at the local girls school when I was a nipper (hi Katie!) - CLASSIC. Nick - when you say you can spot a single-sex-school girl a mile off, do you mean that in a good or a bad way? And surely you can therefore spot a mixed school girl a mile off, too, by process of elimination? I went to a mixed comp, myself, which was OK.

― Will McKenzie, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If you want all the cahrm of a genet novel but with more class snobbery then you can imagine then go ahead and send your precious little children to these horrors

― anthony, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Um, why should single sex schools create class snobbery, Anthony?

― Emma, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No the reason why people send their precious ones is because of class snobbery. We are too good to be publiclly educated , Also v. v. good for people who think social climbing is a contact sport.

― anthony, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I went to a single sex school (did you spot me Nick, I'm sure you did) which wasn't private so there. It was OK. Most of my friends now are boys anyway so I'm clearly overcompensating.

― Emma, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anthony - yeah, in the UK (and much of the world!) there are plenty of state run single-sex schools.

Will - I'm reserving judgement. I think it sometimes instills an odd attitude to boys (=aliens) but I wouldn't want to argue this point too strenuously.

― Nick, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmm. Going to a mixed-sex school would have meant several years of frustration, paranoia, self-loathing and despair. Going to a single- sexed school at least allowed me to put most of that off in the knowledge that my chronically low self-esteem wouldn't actually matter until I left. So I actually had a more pleasant adolescence than I otherwise would. But I think I've been paying for it ever since.

― Tom, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Single-sex schools are fine if they are public/state. Otherwise, hooey. Doing campspeak with public schoolboys is really fun, though.

I went to a coed Breakfast Club-type US high school and I'd have liked uniforms to subvert, as I thrive on silly arguments with authority figures. Also none of the social climbers there could have done the I'm So Cool In My Designer Jeans nonsense.

― suzy, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Thinking about what Suzy says, I'm glad I went to school in the UK. I couldn't be doing with all this jocks=Gods, everyone else = scum nonsense. Is that the case? Or have I been duped by countless summer mornings in front of dubious US high school comedies?

― Will McKenzie, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Thinking about what Suzy says, I'm glad I went to school in the UK. I couldn't be doing with all this jocks=Gods, everyone else = scum nonsense. Is that the case? Or have I been duped by countless summer mornings in front of dubious US high school comedies?

It's an oversimplification of a general truth. The jock clique tends to be the most prominent and popularly acclaimed of the various cliques in a given U.S. school. There tend to be other groups based on common interests -- theater, music, art, cutting class to go down to the boiler room and smoke.

It's not unheard of for members of the various cliques to have connections and crossovers with other groups. However, the rarity of this is what made the movie The Breakfast Club so strong -- ordinarily those 5 people would never be in the same building, never mind sitting together in detention.

― j.lu, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I went to a single sex school. I have no frame of reference so I cant comment. Oh did I mention I am ill adjusted and cant talk to members of the opposite sex ever?

― Ronan, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

j-lu is half right. The same kids for at least 6 years in my case meant everyone knew everyone else even though we didn't necessarily hang together. Often you'd be friends with someone at age 10 that you weren't speaking to at 15 but things were cool by senior year. Also, people pretty much pull together in their senior year and stop acting like jerks (too busy tying their little sisters and brothers to posts with duct tape in Freshman Hell Week to bother about being arsey to people in their own year).

― suzy, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Boys are savage. They maurade like hyenas arround the small and weak . Tear them from limb to limb, leave them with permanant damage. Aside from conditional homosex boys put together is a paragon of retrograde sadism.

― anthony, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I couldn't agree more. I'll add, though, that going from an all-boys private high school to a public co-ed university set me up for a crash course in social skills, however painful it was at the time. But I'm really better for it.

Not that I think I now know everything there is to know about being a social prince. I'm still learning.

But, I'd certainly do things different, as far as high school choice, if I knew better...

― Brian MacDonald, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I went to a mixed school and had no paranoia, despair etc...then moved to single sex at from 9-13 and then went back to mixed at which point yes the teen boy despair kicked in and it took me 3 years to talk to girls again. But God knows what it would have been like if I'd have been at boys school aged 13-18...everyone I've known or ever met who's been through this seems to be raging even more hormonally about than most teenagers. So, classic until about the age of 11 and first appearances of awkwardness.

― Bill, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think I can spot a boy who went to a single-sex school a few inches off.It is easy in the short range, it might be said.

― Laetitia, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do single sex schools have dances? That's the only thing I despise about my mixed school. Spending weeks worrying about a date, going to an ugly dim room with a few streamers and horrible music, and standing/writhing/sitting around for several hours pretending it's an exciting social event is not my idea of great fun, although I do love lovely expensive long dresses. Other than that, there is no great social difficulty about associating with the opposite sex; since most of my friends are female, though, I could probably handle a single- sex school just fine.

― Maria, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i went to a public girls high. i think it was good for me, as i believe the theory that girls achieve better in single sex schools than in co-ed.

― di, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maria -- I think single-sex schools have functions with their single- sex counterparts across the way. I imagine this could actually be sort of more awkward than an internal arrangement, right?

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I went to a single sex (up until 10th grade) private school where you had to wear coat and tie. And when the girls showed up, most were your stereotypical stuck up snobs. I fucking hated it.

― bnw, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

D Nick said:

>>> I think I can spot a girl who went to a single-sex school a mile off

and never explained it. How can you? How do you know? Why is it significant? Emma H says she went to one: I have met her, sort of: and I certainly couldn't have told you she did.

In short - more info, please, DN!

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I went to a single-sex school, but whether you could tell that from looking or whatever I couldn't say. I would of course say that I'm perfectly well-adjusted, and have no problems with girls or anyfing. It must be said though, a lot of boys did leave with some funny ideas about women though, as evidenced by the significant number of 20-something virgin males I know who used to go to Ilford County High.

― DG, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That would be even more awkward.

Hey, what about boarding schools? I always wanted to go to one.

― Maria, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blimey! Ilford County High, eh? I went to Caterham myself, which to be fair was more like a zoo than a school, single-sex or mixed.

― Will McKenzie, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It took me the best part of three years to reasjust socially after the single sex (except 6th form), public boarding school experience. (USAers for public read private/fee paying).

I'm stilll learning.

― Ed, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For a long time i had better friendships with women than with men. Now both are equal in my mind.

― Ed, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Eeew! Caterham! I'll have to disinfect the board now.

― DG, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oooooh DG you terrible terrible snob!

I don't care, I'm quite happy with my First class Honours degree thank you very much! (Pouts a petulant moue and flounces off in a tizz)

― Will McKenzie, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nitsuh, and Maria, single sex schools functions with twin single sex schools, awkward? Oh no. On the contrary, awkward for teachers trying to stop the inevitable descent into seedy singles club. That was *the* good part about being in a single sex school, although by the end of the 6 years the corresponding years tend to hate each other.......which makes Uni all the more fun. Dirty looks......etc.

― Ronan, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have every right to be a snob after all the abuse I got from snotty Caterham kids on the 129 bus every day.

― DG, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I got stick from the little bastards myself on the 129 every day!

And I was at their bloody school!

Er... one for Antony's 'festering abscess' thread, methinks.

― Will McKenzie, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We tended to unite and throw sandwiches at cars.

― Ronan, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

Channel 4 documentary - we are making a series on school reunion and are looking for people who are up for being reunited with class mates - for more infor call sharon at rdf (makers of 'faking it') on 020 7908 1324

― sharon stansfield, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is it just my extensive network of media contacts or is every production company in Britain making a programme about school reunions at the moment? Use other ideas, please!

― Nick, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hey Nick, did I go to a single sex or a mixed school? Or have I already told you all this? dont spoil it dunedinites.

― Menelaus Darcy, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yeah, and also I'd rather stick pins in my eyes that get re-united with most of them.

― chris, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Menelaus, I always assumed you went to an all girls private boarding school. It's written all over your posts.

― Nick, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I would LOVE to go to a school reunion, just so the headmaster could ask me what I'm doing. "Well actually, I'm unemployed and unemployable.", he'd fucking love that, it would mean Ilford County High has produced a TOTAL FAILURE! Hurrah! They can shove that up their league tables! [but that was always the point, you see...sort of]

― DG, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

OK then, fine, but what if I told you I went to two different high schools?

― Menelaus Darcy, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That would undermine my whole worldview.

― Nick, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm all paranoid and offended now? do I sound like I went to an all girls private school? am I that grotesque? do I even want to j=know this answer? MUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― Menelaus Darcy, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

what is working class cred and how do I acheive it? I wanna live with the common people la la la la :)

― Menelaus Darcy, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

single-sex private day school, me, and I thought it was fairly obvious until I went to university, when it took three years for someone to say "you went to private school, didn't you?" And so did he, for what it's worth.

For me, I never had a problem with it. 90% of my friends outside school were girls, who I got on with really well both as a friend and a boyfriend. I was very secure and confident as a teenager, which I find quite hard to believe now. But I never had a problem with it.

My history teacher was astonished at how my attitude improved out of sight when I was looking after a Danish girl who came to my school for a day. So maybe I'd have got wonderful grades and got into Oxford if there had been girls there. We'll never know.

― Mark C, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I might as well have been to a single sex school, it truly was a work of genius. A school had a vary large campus, mostly single storey, a lot of gaps between buildings. The boys and girls common rooms were literally as far apart as possible (there was hardly anywhere else to hang around), members of the opposite sex were banned from each (and even known to be chased away from the steps outside - This rule was usually enforced by THE PUPILS THEMSELVES - how repressed single sex school can you get).

Then in this masterwork of architectural contraception, bang in the middle between the two, if ever starcrossed lovers had wanted to meet, a fuXoring CHAPEL. Genius.

― Graham, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(Cue pervy Godsex post from geoff/anthony/kodanshi et al)

― Graham, Monday, 10 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

yo all, the school i go to now used to be a single-sex school for boys and started accepting girls recently. personally, i think that having a mixed school is still best cos it cuts down on the monotony of seeing just the same sex everyday, in the same classroom, in the same school bus. our grades have really improved now and we concentrate better cos we feel we gotta live up to standards set by the opposite sex. tell me what u think.:) btw, i am not even 18

― young guy, Thursday, 22 April 2004 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to single sex schools up until I was 16. Then, all the girls picked on me.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 22 April 2004 11:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to a single sex school from grades 7-12. Then I went to a large coed university and it was totally a crash course in social skills. it was really hard at first. I had no idea how to talk to girls, it was awful. it took a while to adjust to that. I don't think that single sex schools are a good idea - not for boys anyway. couldnt comment on the girls' side of things. It's just too isolated and closed and repressive.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 22 April 2004 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to a mixed secondary school but my parents chose to send my sister to a state run all girls school as it had a great reputation and she was soooo much more shy than me - she'd have been eaten alive at the school I went to, it was the makings of her and I've never noticed owt wrong with her attitude to blokes!

― smee (smee), Thursday, 22 April 2004 12:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Wheras Smee on the other hand...

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 22 April 2004 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

True story: my mother attended BEAVER COLLEGE, an ALL-WOMEN school outside Philly.

A couple of years ago, Beaver's administration insisted that the name be changed, citing among other things the fact that anyone who did a g00gle search on Beaver College pulled up a littany of porn sites. The school hired a marketing firm, who pulled the name Acadia University out of their collective ass. All the Beaver College girls were issued new diplomas with the new name.

I really wish I had scored some Beaver College T-shirts.

― quincie, Thursday, 22 April 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to a boys-only school from 14 on. I think part of schooling is helping with socialisation, so they are a bad thing on that level. I also think that there is enough stupid shit trying to make men and women more different than there is any need or use for, without this kind of nonsense adding to it.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 22 April 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to an all boys Catholic (!!) high school and I have mostly good memories. We were all fairly unruly, nutty city kids and just about all our girlfriends went to one of the two neighboring all-girl Catholic schools. Much fun was had. *sigh*

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 22 April 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Catholic grade school (which was hell. I still have nightmares about it) was co-ed. Plus, my poor folks worked their asses off to send us kids (3) to a Catholic primary school which, in retrospect, sucked quality-wise and sucked much $$ out of the parental pockets.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 22 April 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I can spot a girl who went to a single-sex school a mile off.

what are the signs? i'm curious about this.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 22 April 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

i went to 2 different all boys catholic schools grades 8-12. i hated them both and now have next to no ability to talk to girls i like. freshman year of college was a fun crash course that i spent befriending lots and lots of girls and getting really really sick of the drama after a semester and a half. i really dont know if i wouldve developed any social skills had i gone to a mixed school. i mean, i went to mixed schools up to 7th grade and still couldnt talk to girls (it didnt help that they avoided me like the plague). didnt know any girls from our sister schools. i might be better off having not had the chance to communicate with girls in high school, since i mightve grown spiteful and not spent grades 9-12 looking forward to knowing girls in college. im a dork know, but i was 32985724597 times ganglier and nerdier in high school.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Thursday, 22 April 2004 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

is there any truth to the often reported thing about how girls do better in all girls schools (even when you control for things like social class and whether or not it is a fee paying school full of little Tarquinas?)

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 22 April 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Here's an argument i've heard for single sex schools: Since little boys are, generally speaking, shit-for-brains compared to same-age little girls, it's not fair that they should be held to the same standard, cause they'll grow up thinking they're shit for brains and possibly hating women.

I'm not condoning it, but it's interesting.

― hegemon (Squirrel_Police), Thursday, 22 April 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

i think it's more to do with "boys are, generally speaking, shit-for-brains when around girls"

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Thursday, 22 April 2004 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I spent most of my school-level education at all girls schools, and I don't think it's affected me that much, except I hate the bitchyness of girls.

Most of my friends are now blokes.

― jellybean (jellybean), Thursday, 22 April 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean that my friends are blokes, rather than the girl friends at school are all blokes. ;)

― jellybean (jellybean), Thursday, 22 April 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

good point, felonious. i wonder if boys would so overfocus on athletics (as opposed to academics) if it weren't for the desire to impress or make themselves look macho.

― zoneraider (Squirrel_Police), Thursday, 22 April 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to an all-girls school from 11-18, which suited me just fine.
Could you tell, Nick?

― Cathy (Cathy), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, it was very clear.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

It's been guessed before, by complete strangers. What gave me away?

― Cathy (Cathy), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I will reveal all at a later date. It is 2.30 and I should go to bed.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

How mysterious. Goodnight.

― Cathy (Cathy), Friday, 23 April 2004 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought this was a thread about sex schools for singles.

― just don't do it, Friday, 23 April 2004 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

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