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From: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F Haugh II)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: sexist spaces
Message-ID: <9103141008.AA27039@rpp386.Cactus.ORG>
Date: 14 Mar 91 16:08:52 GMT
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I went to school in Jefferson Parish, LA.  Anyone who thinks that all-male
or all-female schools have any great advantage should study that school
system from the middle 1960's to 1980.  Because of the racial integration
of the public schools, the high schools were segregated by sex until
court ordered sexual integration occured in 1980.  Advanced subjects, or
subjects which required special equipment were sexual integrated by
busing (such as German, which wasn't a popular language, or Auto Body,
which required a machine shop).  There were several girls in my German
class, and even a few in the Mechanical Drafting course I took.  Some boys
did take the bus to the girls high schools in the afternoon (I think it
was afternoon for boy -> girl and morning for girl -> boy busing).  So
there was an oppurtunity for any girl or boy to take courses at the
other schools, and busloads of them did.

While Jefferson Parish had a higher-than-state-average for education
level, it still lagged far behind "national" levels of education.  The
high school I attended had a good number of academic honor students, but
in a state which frequently competes against Mississippi and Alabama for
lowest level of education in the nation, I don't see that this is a great
achievement.  Jefferson Parish was doing well to be =at= the national
average, and it was a predominately Anglo middle-class part of the state,
except for some parts of the parish that were Cajun-French or Hispanic.

My ex-wife student-taught in the high school I attended a few years after
I had left (1979) and told me sexual integration was a mistake because the
pregnancy rate skyrocketed the first few years girls and boys were together.
I've never bothered to verify that her statement was or wasn't true.  At
the time I believed it, but it could have been caused by any number of
things, including teacher perception.

I won't say whether or not I feel the school district should have been
sexually integrated.  I am only providing this information for those of
you that would spend your time conducting the experiment for more than
two months.  It was conducted at my high school for about 15 years.

Other school districts, such as the Orleans Parish district (City of New
Orleans and surrounding areas) are still somewhat sexually segregated
because of the high degree of private education.  You might contact
those schools as well as there are still boys-only and girls-only
private schools to compare against the both-genders private schools.
-- 
John F. Haugh II        | Distribution to  | UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh
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