By Emily Martin and Katie Schwartzmann This summer, after
receiving a complaint from parents told they faced a mandatory
sex-segregated educational program at a public school in
Livingston Parish, La., the ACLU filed a lawsuit and the school
board quickly withdrew the plan. This was an exciting victory,
but unfortunately, the Livingston school is not unique. The U.S.
Department of Education plans to release new rules that will
allow for expanded use of single-sex education in public
schools. Across the country, proponents of gender-segregation
are touting boys- or girls-only classrooms as a fix-all solution
to the woes of many struggling school districts. In addition to
being unlawful, the rationale behind these programs is bad for
kids. Advocates of sex-segregated schools offer pseudo-
scientific workshops where educators learn about alleged brain
differences between boys and girls. According to some advocates:
When establishing authority, teachers should not smile at boys
because they're biologically program