Battle of the sexes in middle school?

I’ve been teaching long enough to have noticed a trend in education — the trend.

There’s always some new slogan, program or cutting-edge educational fix. I believe most of these trends result from a true desire to keep up with the newest generation and the challenges of public education. At times, though, these new and innovative trends are exhausting. I’ve just figured out how to fully implement the last new idea when another new idea comes along. A new trend picking up support is the idea of gender-based classrooms. That’s right, the battle of the sexes is back.

At first the idea offended me. I truly believe in the idea of public education. For all its faults and shortcomings, the principle is truly amazing. It doesn’t matter what race, what socio-economic group or ability level to which you belong. If you are a kid and live in the United States, a desk is waiting.

But the reality is that boys and girls are different. There are biological and social differences. Walk in to any middle school classroom and just look at the binders on the desks. Nine times out of 10 you can tell if the binder belongs to a girl or a boy, and not because one is pink. You can tell because girls tend to be more organized. I don’t have factual evidence to support this observation, just years of watching, mostly boys, use a GPS to locate the homework in their folder. I realize I sound stereotypical, but the difference between boys and girls in middle school is evident to anyone looking.

Gender-based classrooms don’t differentiate the material — all kids get the same lesson, same content, same knowledge. What differs is the approach, the way the material is presented. Learning styles are accommodated, allowing the differences between boys and girls to drive instruction. Classrooms cater to the differences.

With any new trend, there are positives and negatives. For example, girls tend to feel empowered in certain subjects when there aren’t males around to demean them. Boys also tend to be more willing to participate if they feel they won’t look foolish in the eyes of the cute girl one seat over. On the other hand, separating the boys and girls promotes stereotypes. I have used broad stereotypes in my discussion. Also, these classrooms are not representative of the real world. Our goal is to prepare students for the real world. In the real world, the odds are pretty good that you will have a coworker of the opposite sex.

Why do I bring this up? Recently, we divided our advisory periods into gender-based classrooms. Advisory is non-academic, so my team and I thought it would be a good place to start, get our feet wet. The two male teachers have all the boys and my female colleague and I work with the girls.

So far, I like it. My classroom is calmer and easier to manage. My male colleagues also commented on how much easier it is to run advisory. This week we started reading a book aloud to our advisory classes. One male teacher said the boys were really into the book and commenting on the storyline. He had tried to read a book before when he had girls in the room, and the boys wouldn’t quit making wise cracks, almost showing off. That element is gone. So, where does that leave the battle of the sexes? One for the girls and one for the boys — tied.

Brandy J. Bishop teaches seventh grade at Houston Middle School.