In an article for SerPadres magazine, Marta Moreno reveals one of the lesser-known reasons for choosing the New Single-Gender Education: the brain.
According to sociologist Marina Subirats in ¿Coeducación o escuela segregada? Un viejo y persistente debate (“Coeducation or Segregated School? An Old and Persistent Debate”), “The argument in the past that led to the conclusion that boys and girls should be educated separately was simple and completely consistent with the social conception of the differentiated roles of men and women in society.”
However, today there is an aspiration for men and women to have the same role in society; and it turns out that the New Single-Gender Education also has arguments in this new context. We will explore them below.
Different educational advice for boys and girls.
Although it is widely present in the debate, Moreno considers that perhaps the least known aspect of single-gender education is related to the differences in the way boys and girls learn, and the corresponding ways to educate them. Something that María Calvo Charro defines in her book Guía para una educación diferenciada (Editorial Almuzara) as “educational advice.”
“One of the most frequent arguments used to defend this education is related to the differences in brain development and maturation between boys and girls, which complicate, when educating them together, the educational processes for both,” argues Subirats in her cited work.
Families have the right to choose the best educational option for their children. Those who choose New Single-Gender Education are firmly convinced that boys and girls mature at different rates and believe that if they are taught separately, they are less distracted and gain in self-esteem.
Behavioral Differences
Another argument is the difference in behavior and attitudes. Everyone agrees that the classroom environment should be comfortable, clean, and organized; but from here, the differences begin. Girls prefer a colorful classroom decoration and a female teacher, who “would better understand their sensitivity, needs, and feelings,” explains Calvo Charro, based on hormonal variations between boys and girls. For boys, however, Calvo explains that the decoration should be austere, “so as not to distract attention,” and discipline is essential, for which a male teacher is considered preferable.
“It is this individualized attention that allows for sex-segregated education,” emphasizes María Calvo, who reminds us that boys suffer from higher rates of early school dropout than girls, are more prone to poor grades, repeating courses more often, and attending university less frequently. She believes that the “preeminence of the feminine” in classrooms, where most teachers are women, “does not help” the academic progress of boys.
“Girls are the first ones who want the differentiated model because they feel more comfortable in an environment of study, responsibility, and closeness. In the end, it is about treating a group of people who are more alike with a more appropriate approach,” says Irene Parra, director of Alcaste-Las Fuentes school in La Rioja.
“There should be no obstacle to offering single-sex education in public schools in the U.S. We know that this model benefits students,” stated Hillary Clinton in 2001.
Teachers as Role Models
On the other hand, various studies have highlighted the importance of adult role models in reducing early school dropout. For example, when an African American student in elementary school has a teacher of the same race, the likelihood of completing high school increases by more than 10 percentage points, according to a study published in the American Economic Review.
An analysis by the American Institute for Boys and Men suggests that the presence of male teachers makes a positive difference for male students.
The only area where differentiation should not occur is by labeling subjects as “for boys” or “for girls.” The New Single-Gender Education has a long tradition of successfully encouraging girls to show interest in traditionally male subjects such as STEM, and vice versa. Even in public universities, there are initiatives promoting technology campuses exclusively for girls.
Iguales y Diferentes – New Single-Gender Education
Iguales y Diferentes, Equal and Different, is an association promoted by families, alumni, and teachers aimed at promoting educational pluralism by disseminating and supporting the model of single-gender education under equal conditions, both nationally and internationally.
At Iguales y Diferentes, we strive to address the uniqueness of each individual, overcome gender stereotypes, reduce school failure, and advance educational equity.
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Fuentes:
Características de la educación diferenciada, además de dividir las clases por género, Marta Moreno en serPadres, 15 de febrero de 2023
La escuela que separa por sexos, en vías de extinción, Olga R. Sanmartín, El Mundo, 5 de marzo de 2025
