Why Do You Think Girls Do Better At Exams They Go To All-Girls' Schools?

[sp1814]

...but the same is not true of boys who go to all boys' schools?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35419284

I'd be especially interested to hear from anyone who went to a single sex school - do you think it improved your chances of getting good exam results?

[DaisyNonna]

No way
There were the Scouts, the Choir boys, the YMCA, the ATC,

[jim360]

"Girls are prepared to compete against girls when the subjects are thought of as male subjects ( science, technology) but not nearly so much against boys."

Any such statements are, of course, generalisations. I'm sure it's not difficult to find individual exceptions. The idea of "competing" never occurred to me either, at least not in a macho way. I remember enjoying, in the last year or two of primary school, the company of an equally brilliant maths student or two as we'd often have raced to compete the latest set of 30 problems. The same thing was useful in the middle years of High School, when a Korean and American joined my maths class. I think it will have been year ten when the Korean student just pipped me to the "best in school" certificate at some national competition or other and the teacher announcing the results made a stupid show of surprise that I wasn't first. But I was so pleased for him, he was brilliant. Wonder what he's doing now.

But anyway, that was a healthy competition, where I think we admired each other and lots of pats on the back, rather than some kind of irritation at not winning all the time.

OK that was a little further down memory lane than I was intending to go, but whatever.

[anotheoldgit]

In my day all schools were single sex schools, less problems then, very few teenage pregnancies etc.

[jim360]

What day was that? As best I can determine, teen pregnancy rates these days are *lower* than they used to be in, say, the late 1960s and early 70s, although not that much lower.

[dannyk13]

The school I attended in the 40's was one building housing a boys school and a girls school.Don't think it made any difference to exam results.

[naomi24]

aog, //In my day all schools were single sex schools, less problems then, very few teenage pregnancies etc.//

Oh, I don’t know. A family member has been researching our family tree and she’s dug up two or three shotgun weddings from your day. The brides and grooms are dead now, but I well remember their ‘respectable’ façade and their fearsome admonishment of what they disparagingly called ‘the youth of today’. Veritable Victorians in their attitudes to us youngsters – but we now know they were hypocrites to boot!

[anotheoldgit]

naomi24

Those examples were of your family, that doesn't necessarily mean that there were many among other families.

In the whole of my school I cannot ever remember any lad getting a girl pregnant or any schoolgirl in my area becoming pregnant.

[FinnyMick]

I went to an all boys grammar school where two teachers were homosexual. Difficult to concentrate whilst watching your back.

[jim360]

That's cool and all AOG, but unless your school's catchment area was the entire UK then I don't think it means much.

I suppose this is one of the problems with any discussion about what works in education. We've all been through it, we all think we know what it is like, and we're all wrong.

[Sqad]

Jim

" teen pregnancy rates these days are *lower* than they used to be in, say, the late 1960s and early 70s, although not that much lower."

and so they should be.....much lower, as the advent of the oral contraceptive in the early 70's came into play.
Even today, recent figures (if you believe statistics) show that the UK is the teenage pregnancy capital of Europe.

[naomi24]

aog, I'm not saying schoolgirls, but certainly there were more shotgun weddings that you imagine. With a bit of digging you would be in for a big surprise.

[anotheoldgit]

jim360

I would think that one could take it was the same the UK over, in those far off days kids were kids.

They hadn't be indoctrinated in such sexual matters, such as the libel thinking teachers of today teach.

And girls were told by their mothers, "don't you bring any trouble home here."

And I bet most girl's wouldn't have known what the hell she meant.

[jim360]

The basic point AOG is that statistical records don't agree with you. Teenage pregnancies have numbered somewhere in the tens of thousands per year since records began. As for "liberal teaching" being to blame... the reverse is probably more true. In the US, those places that teach abstinence usually have higher rates of teen pregnancy than those that don't cast judgement on teenage sex.

But anyway. I'm not saying you are wrong about your own circle, but -- just as always -- your own circle is not representative of the country as a whole. No one's is.

[anotheoldgit]

naomi24

That may well be Naomi, and I don't doubt that what you say is perfectly correct, but we are discussing school girls here.

[naomi24]

okay, aog. Carry on.

[fiction-factory]

>I went to an all boys grammar school where two teachers were homosexual. Difficult to concentrate whilst watching your back.

Think that one fell flat.