Poll: Should boys and girls be taught in separate classes?

[BlueSmarties]

If only I was as eloquent as Amber... I want to "Like" her post!!

[mad?]

The nonsense about who is going out with whom at primary school is fed by parents and the issue of the premature sexualisation of girls, about which I feel pretty passionately, is a societal one. Not until parents of girls, especially their mothers, stop allowing 11 year olds to dress, act and make themselves up like 16 year olds will this go away. Schools don't make much difference if mothers think it's ok for pre pubescent girls to go about in foundation and mascara.

Never were truer words written

[scary mum]

Lots of "likes" for your words today, Amber +1 here.

As an aside, the local free school set up in Stoke Poges (not needed locally, turned down by planning, on appeal & then the whole thing overturned by the DfE as it is their vanity project) is compulsorily (is that a word??) vegetarian. Imagine the fuss if it was compulsory to eat meat. It is at least mixed, although it is a faith school (Sikh).

[KB]

Wary of being reprimanded for going off topic but another agreement for comments about sexualisation of girls.

[Yamin151]

+ 1 again, and it have no problem going off topic, so long as we are all happy about it! Anyway, it's different but there is early sexualisation of boys too. All the 'going out' stuff involves them too, and there is far more ******** language and images than there ever was when I was growing up. It may be more immature and giggly for boys, but nevertheless the pressure to 'know' is certainly there.......

[Catseye]

"I hate those magazines
that are aimed at insecure teens
that makes ten year olds race to grow up
hey kids lets all be anorexic or better
and eat chocolate until we all throw up

keep your Hollywood stars
and their stupid cars
and the botox that makes them look f----d !
just grow up with grace
have you seen Cher's face
it looks like it's been hit by a bus!"

PASSENGER-ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS

[southbucks3]

I'm not entirely sure that wearing foundation and mascara as a pre pubescent girl really detracts from their ability to assert themselves in science lessons. Are they allowed make up in school?....I honestly don't know, it wasn't allowed in my school days.
Surely in class the kids just unite in boredom and get on with it?
I do remember reading an article as a young teen, probably slyly left on a surface by my mother, about how make up mimics the during and post coitus look, of flushed skin with 'big' eyes and plumped pink lips, which I found icky enough to steer clear for a few more years.

The boys are often striviving for a "hench" muscly build before puberty, which is far more dangerous and time consuming than applying make up. Sales to teenagers of protein shakes and performance enhancing concoctions and powders such as creatine, are at an all time high. My fourteen year old desperately awaits the nod from his father to use muscle building gym equipment, but thankfully dad knows best, sadly some dads encourage this madness, just as parents encourage the "little princesses".

Weird but interesting how quickly things have changed, we can clearly see that girls are now happy to hassle boys for numbers and dates, which would have been frowned upon thirty years ago, yet some adults still assume those same teenage girls would generally allow themselves to be dominated by boys in a school environment.

I am sure the freedom of access to the huge resources of gossip, celebrity news, media etc have a far larger part to play in the distracting desire for tweens to grow up too quickly, than any influence from social interaction between genders in school, or parental stereotyping.

[succeed]

Interesting take on it SB3, and, these days I'm inclined to agree.Over the years, whilst being presented with rows of panda eyed, plaster faced pubescent girls, I have gone through a range of emotions consisting of disbelief, mortification and (mostly) 'cringe'. What I have discovered though, is that there is not necessarily a link with parents reckless or complicit attitudes.For instance, you'd be surprised at the number of 'Absolutely Fabulous' mother and daughter combinations I've seen on parent's evening. Regardless of parental views, if girls want to wear make up, they will.
Neither am I completely convinced that it is solely the fault of media/ society in exerting undue pressure on girls to 'look a certain way'.The fact is, many teenage girls LIKE wearing make up and find it fun experimenting with friends, swapping colours etc. which I increasingly believe is simply a way of them exploring their new found sexuality - ditto for the short skirts and what not.This maybe an unpopular view, but I believe it's a fairly natural stage of their development in a society which allows them the freedom to explore their ******** identity.
More often than not, when you bump into the same girls a couple of years later,gone are the crass pieces of clothing and panda eyes and in it's place are young ,strong women confident in their sexuality and ability to take control of their lives.
It's interesting, as sb3's comment highlights about boys spending hours in the gym, that both society and parents tend to be much more negatively judgemental on the way teenage girls spend their time than they do of boys.

Anyway, rant over. Should boys and girls be educated separately? On a point of principle, I would say no. But if I am entirely honest, I actually think it is quite healthy for secondary school pupils to be separated as it gives both self conscious ,hormone intoxicated, (offten spotty) sexes the freedom to grow without the added intimidation of worrying what the opposite sex thinks of them.

[Catseye]

My daughter is driving me up the wall recently , she thinks everything adults say has a double entendre meaning, I never had this problem with my son who was considerably more mature at her age and they say boys have a tendency to be immature
it's a right "carry on" in our house

[neveragain*]

I fully agree with Amber and would add that I don't even feel children should be split in terms of chronological age.......imagine if they were put in groups according to interest so a 12 and a 15 could work on a science project together, or a 11 and a 14 on a music project.......it's such am arbitrary split and with what we know about neurobiological development it doesn't make any sense any more.

A lot of the looked after children I work with feel so out of sorts with their chronological groups but it is considered desperately uncool apparently to mix with the younger years despite them being much more on a level with them emotionally.

My son, 13, year 9, is musical so often spends time with much older children playing in various orchestras etc, and at school is as likely to hang out with a bunch of year 8's ( he's a summer born year 9) or a group of year 10's as his year group. In fact, he has made a conscious decision to decide what he wants to do each break time and them see who else is doing it rather than the other way round.

I wish my DC had a mixed school environment, but with four single sex GS in our city it was almost impossible........