Boys' Brains vs. Girls' Brains: What Sex Segregation Teaches
Students Why are so many public schools experimenting with
single-sex education today? While school districts institute sex
segregation for different reasons, an increasingly popular
reason for separating boys and girls in school is the notion
that boys' brains and girls' brains are so different that boys
and girls can't both succeed in the same classroom. Do boys and
girls learn differently? The best answer is that all students
learn differently. These differences are based on many factors,
and do not break down simply along gender lines. A teaching
strategy that helps one girl may not help another, and an
approach that one boy responds well to may not work for another
boy. What are proponents of sex-segregated education saying
about how boys and girls learn best? Two of the most influential
advocates of the theory that sex-segregated education is best
for students are the writers Leonard Sax and Michael Gurian. Sax
is a psychologist; Gurian is a c