Boys who underachieve in the classroom may soon have a school of their own, the Globe and Mail reported Oct. 20.
The Toronto District School Board’s new education director, Chris Spence, has proposed the first-ever all-male public elementary school in Ontario. The school, called the Male Leadership Academy, would provide a more hands-on approach than traditional classrooms to target the specific educational needs of young boys.
Last year in Toronto public schools, boys were 3.5 times more likely than girls to be suspended. Boys also consistently perform at lower levels than their female classmates, regardless of socioeconomic factors. Spence cites boys’ disengagement at school as an indicator of “poor grades and unproductive lives” later on.
It’s a positive step to look at children’s engagement at school and consider ways of improving performance. Recognizing that mainstream curriculum and teaching styles don’t work for all groups is important in the process of meeting educational demands.
But it’s possible to address learning challenges without developing an entirely all-male facility.
Spence’s plan makes the assumption all boys prefer hands-on learning while girls are docile. In reality, the gender divide isn’t so clear-cut.
It’s a nice idea to give choice to those who use the public school system, which inherently doesn’t offer many options. But a separate all-male environment isn’t how our larger society works.
Living in a co-ed world is inevitable, and we may as well learn to compromise early on.
Proposing the Male Leadership Academy as a “school of choice” for families interested in the single-sex approach to education is a good approach, as families won’t be forced to send their sons to the school simply because they live in the district. But it’s unclear how the school would meet demands if many boys were interested in attending the Male Leadership Academy.
Segregating the sexes has worked in the private and Catholic school systems, but this antiquated tradition shouldn’t be used to bolster Spence’s ideas about the marvels of single-sex learning.
Private schools are an attractive choice more because of their access to funding and facilities than their tendency to divide the sexes.
Spence calls on parents to get involved in their children’s education. Perhaps something this simple would be a better first step towards curbing learning problems than instituting a young boys’ club.
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