Public Schools to Segregate Romeos from Juliets

Marquel, TPVs NYTimes Inequality Section correspondent, was sharing a bagel with a Bowery bum, when the bum asked him to read aloud Old Tactic Gets New Use: Public Schools Separate Girls and Boys. Single-sex classes are increasingly common in the nation’s public schools, particularly in poor areas, prompting new scrutiny about their effectiveness.

Welcome to the eighteenth century, thought Marquel. At least girls get to go to school. And that’s good. Why should they share classes with boys? It’s not like they’re going to be sharing the rest of their lives with boys. They’ll be with one man. Or maybe one woman.  But a class full? Never.

But that was too superficial. Marquel went to a meeting on the upper west side where some parents had been lobbying for segregated classes.

“We don’t call them segregated. It has a negative connotation.” A leader of the group said.

“Maybe there’s a reason for that.” I said.

“Huh?” She grunted.

“Maybe no matter what word you use, let’s call it the petit fleur, a nice French phrase meaning little flower. If it means keeping girls and boys separate, maybe it’s that separation that has the negative connotation, not the word. Let’s say your petit fleur means separate classes, don’t you think people would think poorly of the petit fleur?”

She grunted. “But boys and girls learn differently.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“You can see it!” She bellowed.

“Where?” I asked.

“In my own family. My two girls come home with Cs in math. The boys get A’s and B’s.”

“I don’t know how to say this, but maybe your daughters aren’t Math Einsteins.” I suggested in a low soothing voice.

“If they were in girl only classes, they’d get A’s”-she snorted.

“How do you know that?”-I asked.

“It’s obvious. Girls are quiet, studious, and pretty. Boys are wild, loud, aggressive, and ugly. They get all the attention.” She said

“Why?” I asked.

“With such wild boys, the teacher pays more attention to them.” She said.

“So you’re saying the problem isn’t the mixed class, but a teacher who pays attention to wildness rather than merit or needs.”

“Well I guess,” she harrumphed.

“And if you leave the boys with that teacher who only pays attention to the wild ones, all the nice ones are going to get ignored just like you say the girls are now. Those boys don’t deserve that, do they?”

“I don’t know. They’re boys. Fuck ‘m.” She chortled.

“You don’t mean that,” I said. “So don’t you think that the mistreatment of girls with the odd stereotype of being quiet, submissive, and pretty, has a harmful effect on boys who are consequently forced to be aggressive and loud and wild, when they might prefer to be civil? Don’t you think the stereotype that separates boys and girls into two camps actually hurts each equally?”

She sucked back some misplaced phlegm and said, “that’s too theoretical.”

“But it’s not! ” I exclaimed. “If I’m right all our children are suffering from stereotyping. According to you. It’s teachers who don’t know where to place their emphases.”

“It’s more than that. When pre-teen girls or older are in a class with boys, the boys ogle them.” She said.

“Some of us boys got ogled by the girls, I remember,” I said,

“That’s ridiculous,” she sneezed.

“But it’s true. I remember the girls ogling me and wondering how they could get into my pants. I had to have a meeting with them in the cafeteria, almost all the girls in seventh grade and me. I showed them what part of my body was simply off limits. They listened and learned.” I said.

“Oh well you were a real Romeo. Lucky you. Most boys are repulsive.” She said.

“But so are the girls. For every girl who’s ogled, there are twenty or thirty who could learn a lot from a bar of Dial® and a full hot tub. And anti perspirant. ” I said.

She lost it. “Sexist. Sexist sexist.”

She howled. Several other women joined in. I thought maybe they needed a little time with Dial®, too. But it was out of control so I left.

At the DOE, they told me segregated classes are forbidden. But there was some exception if a normal class was available, and the separated classes were purely voluntary. I wondered why second class education was OK to the DOE as long as it’s voluntary. Strange for professionals, it seemed to me. I was convinced this was a teacher problem, not a student issue, and the DOE was, typically, shirking it’s responsibilities.

***

BY MARQUEL: Public Schools to Segregate Romeos from Juliets