{"id":722,"date":"2004-03-04T08:59:46","date_gmt":"2004-03-04T13:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2004\/03\/separate_but_equal\/"},"modified":"2004-03-04T08:59:46","modified_gmt":"2004-03-04T13:59:46","slug":"separate_but_equal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2004\/03\/separate_but_equal\/","title":{"rendered":"Separate But Equal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Executive branch rule making<\/a> in action:<\/p>\n

The administration yesterday announced a major change in federal sex-discrimination rules that would give communities more freedom to offer same-sex schools and classes.
\nIn the first major change in the 30-year-old federal Title IX regulations banning sex discrimination, Education Secretary Rod Paige said states and schools would have “maximum flexibility to … provide the best education possible for their students.”
\nInstead of narrow exemptions allowing same-sex classes for physical education, sex education and choir, the new rules would “provide educators and parents with a wider range of diverse education options in public as well as private schools that receive federal aid.”
\nGenerally, same-sex schools and classes would be allowed in any situation “if they are part of an even-handed effort to provide a range of diverse educational options for male and female students, or if they are designed to meet particular, identified educational needs of students,” said a department statement about the proposed changes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not up on the academic literature on how the impact a same-sex environment has on learning; intuitively, I could accept the argument that it may be somewhat helpful. But you have to balance this against obvious risks: (1) potential for waste with the duplication of resources for both sexes; (2) danger that “even-handed” might not be equal–girls, for instance, might be offered a more “domestic” curriculum while guys get trade-focused stuff; and (3) the socialization issues which may arise if youth don’t have sufficient interaction with the opposite sex.
\nThe latter factor resonates on a personal level for me. I attended a small private boarding high school. The school was co-educational, but it had severe restrictions on social interaction between genders. For instance, mixed seating was only allowed one meal per day in the cafeteria, males and females had designated areas on campus which were “off limits” to the opposite sex, and the limited social interaction which was allowed was strictly supervised.
\nIt was quite strange. Suffice it to say I didn’t view sexual segregation as a very healthy way to develop as a teenager. Hence I’m naturally suspect of this whole same-sex educational philosophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Executive branch rule making in action: The administration yesterday announced a major change in federal sex-discrimination rules that would give communities more freedom to offer same-sex schools and classes. In the first major change in the 30-year-old federal Title IX regulations banning sex discrimination, Education Secretary Rod Paige said states and schools would have “maximum […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}