Do you believe in single sex education at the secondary level?

[Blue-Eyed Christian]

Wow. Some of those teachers seem like jerks. It's not appropriate for a teacher to swear at the students, even if they're teens. Totally unprofessional.

I think there are benefits to gender-segregated schooling in high school. It cuts down on distractions, that's for sure. And I can see how it would benefit boys to be in an environment where they are prepared to deal with normal boy behaviour, rather than in a school where everything is more female-friendly.

 

[zac]

i don't think it's the gender of the teachers that affects it, just the system. at the school i go to, of the three teachers that first come to mind when i think of pushovers, two are male, and the female is fresh out of uni, and the three strictest are female (i'm a bit dubious on the gender of one of them, but we call her miss, so.....) teachers just don't have any authority anymore. I'm AT school and i still think it's wrong. you can't even fail in tests. one of my friends has an average maths test score of 29% and he's in his school certificate year and his parents just want him to finish school and get out, so his (male) maths teacher can't even threaten to give him zero in his test to stop him distracting the class so the vice principal gets called in, he can't make the student leave the room or even touch the kid unless the kid presents a physical threat to the class or staff

the reason teachers aren't strong role models are because they don't have any power in the classroom

 

[Nathan]

I was born in Australia, lived in England from 7-24, returned to Australia. I thus did virtually all of my schooling and first degree in England.

I went to a private (or public as they call them in England), secondary school with 95% male teachers whom we called "Sir". They knew how to deal with boys, i.e if you played around during class, the Teacher would jump up at shout something like "You boy, what the hell do you think you are doing? Get on with your work!". This worked in 95% of cases and the remainder were sent to the Headmaster.

Teachers that I have met in recent years in Australia have been mainly female, weak with multiple issues and hang ups. I have had very little respect for them, so I would not imagine that their boys would do either.

At my school, we had a few female teachers and they similarly got respect from the boys by being strong. We also got the odd weak teacher/person, and we really made them crack up! One I remember was a local Vicar who came in to talk about his church. By the time we had finished with him, he was pleading "Boys, boys - why do you not believe me, why, why?". He ran out of the classroom and the Headmaster came in and had a go at us!

Boys need strong role models when they are young, that give the impression that being educated is not just for "Nerds". Even our 6"7' Phys. Ed. Teacher who took us for rugby and Judo had a degree and encouraged us to do well at our studies.
Zac- thanks, that is good feedback. I have heard similiar from a guy with who I work. I think that the law needs to stay out of the classrooms more.