Political Crossfire Forums

[perdidochas]

F'losrix wrote: perdidochas wrote: School is a totally artificial social environment unlike anything else except school.
Where do school-age children spend most of the waking hours? In school. Where does most of their early socialization take place with those outside the immediate family? In school.

Where do adults spend most of their waking hours? For many of us, it's in the 'artificial social environment' of work.

Your argument strikes me as a case of misplaced emphasis. The social interaction learned in the school environment isn't about teaching kids how to get along in a similar environment. It's about teaching them how to interact socially, period. Those are transferable skills that apply to anyplace where social interaction occurs.

Now, which more closely matches social interaction in the 'real world'? A school full of same-sex peers, or one where there is exposure to those of both sexes?

Unless you live in a world where the sexes continue to be strongly segregated, I would have to say the latter.

I don't view school--either single sex or coed--to be a place to learn social interaction, unless the school is being run totally improperly, there should only be social interaction in the 5 minutes between classes, and during lunch time. The rest of the time should be academic, or the teachers should be fired. In no way did I learn anything about social interaction in school. I learned social interaction after school and outside of school, but not in school. There simply isn't time for that. For those few minutes of social interaction, we shouldn't compromise educational quality, which is what coed schools do. Also, in terms of social interaction, single sex schools have more positive interaction. There are no courting rituals to get in the way of social interaction in single sex schools.

[Snake]

perdidochas wrote: Where else besides school do you deal primarily with 20-30 people of your own age led by an older individual who does most of the talking? I don't know about you, but I don't. Um, my job? I don't work with 20-30 employees all at once, more like 10-15, but I get assignments from my boss that I must complete by a certain deadline. Conversation is acceptable as long as it doesn't interfere with said assignments. It's actually very similar. Not sure what kind of school you went to, but interaction isn't limited to five minutes between class, and the thirty minutes you have at lunch. You talk of what should be, but seem to ignore what is

[perdidochas]

Kamel wrote: perdidochas wrote: Where else besides school do you deal primarily with 20-30 people of your own age led by an older individual who does most of the talking? I don't know about you, but I don't. Um, my job? I don't work with 20-30 employees all at once, more like 10-15, but I get assignments from my boss that I must complete by a certain deadline. Conversation is acceptable as long as it doesn't interfere with said assignments. It's actually very similar. Not sure what kind of school you went to, but interaction isn't limited to five minutes between class, and the thirty minutes you have at lunch. You talk of what should be, but seem to ignore what is

I'm a former teacher. Kids shouldnt' be interacting socially, but should only be interacting academically. That's not to say that they shouldn't be working together, but I don't think of groupwork as "social." Also, the evidence shows that single sex schools provide for better social interactions, not worse. Women who have gone to single sex schools are much more assertive in their social interactions with males, than those in coed schools.

IMHO, there is one good argument against single sex schools--the whole separate but equal impossibility. It is almost impossible to make two schools "separate but equal."