This fall, St. Therese School in Madrona will employ a new program that already has everybody talking: dividing up sixth- and seventh-grade girls and boys into separate classrooms.
Dividing the sexes
Studies have long shown that boys and girls develop at different rates and levels - a characteristic that sometimes hampers their intellectual growth when placed in the same classroom. Many Catholic schools have adhered to the gender-division model, although it's most common form was in a high-school setting, such as at Seattle's O'Dea High School and Holy Names Academy.
These models have been the inspiration for St. Therese principal Eileen Gray when planning the upcoming gender-division program at the K-8 school.
"Being a product of a single-gender high school myself, I simply didn't have many of the gender issues that I see in so many young adults today. Throughout my 30 years in the education system it has become clear that boys and girls have very different and very specific needs at this age," Gray said.
The program - which will affect next year's sixth- and seventh-graders and the following year's eighth-graders as well - is an attempt to positively nurture the social and emotional aspects of being a certain age, while, at the same time, fostering an environment where both genders will have improved intellectual performance.
The classes will still adhere to the same middle-school curriculum as before (math, English, social studies, etc.), but the separate classes will address the topics in different, more gender-specific ways.
For example, boys' classes might include more kinetic, active types of exercises, while girls' classes will likely foster a more discussion-oriented environment. Co-ed spaces will still exist, however, such as recess, lunch and some elective courses.
"Boys tend to be a bit more goal-oriented and favor a competition, while girls frequently shy away from such games and might be less inclined, therefore, to perform as well as they could," Gray said.
Improving self-image
While parents' response to the program has been guarded, the overall reception has been positive, Gray said.
Aloria Mercer, whose daughter will be in sixth grade next fall, is enthusiastic about the program.
"Growing up in a military family, I was constantly moving around and constantly enrolling in new schools - none of which were single-gender institutions. I remember so well being that age and how body image was just everything. School and my performance in it were the absolute last things I was thinking about!" Mercer said.
A young person's tendency to shy away from academic potential because of gender differences or concerns about body image is exactly what this program is striving to put an end to.
Fostering a healthy body image for young girls is indeed at the center of the ideal. The curriculum for girls will be following along the lines of Dove's Real Beauty campaign, which emphasizes the irrelevance of shape or size in regards to beauty.
Likewise, St. Therese's program will include counseling and mentoring sessions that foster social and emotional growth, with an emphasis on teaching females how to respect their bodies and make themselves assertive and heard without resorting to other, more debilitating techniques.
"I've seen in a lot of movies and other media lately a real trend toward showing young women being very aggressive and catty in getting their ways. Through speech and communication courses, we are going to try to teach them that there is no need to resort to this," Mercer said.
The program is not only focused on girls' development, however; creating a nurturing and intellectually stimulating environment for boys is just as important.
"Each boy will receive a mentor, and that mentor will spend a minimum of one hour a week with his boy - playing basketball, getting lunch together, so long as it is on cam-pus....The point is that only a man can teach them how to be a man, and at that age. Their social and emotional growth is something that is just as important as with girls," Gray said.
To prepare for the curricuulum change, the school planned trips for its students to O'Dea High School and Holy Names Academy. Accompanied by counselors, students spoke their students about what the St. Therese students can expect from it.
[[In-content Ad]]
