THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 14, 1994 TAG: 9410140070
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY AMY McDOWELL, KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
LENGTH: Long : 150 lines
YOU'RE SEATED in a classroom, anywhere in the country.
Your teacher asks the question, ``Who can name a novel written by Charles Dickens?''
Whatever your answer, it's not a cause for great expectations in the battle of gender equality. The problem lies not in the answer, but in who is answering it - more often than not a boy, rather than a girl, is called on to answer questions.
These aren't great works of fiction. They're statistics.
When students are praised, boys are more likely than girls to be complimented about intellectual quality of their work rather than form or neatness. When students are criticized, boys are more likely than girls to be faulted for their neatness, not their intellectual quality.
Even when they're in the same classroom, boys and girls get different educations. It's a subtle bias. The American Association of University Women told us so in its 1992 report, which compiled more than 1,300 national and regional studies during a 20-year period.
The association stressed that it was not criticizing teachers for discrimination - the bias is usually unintentional.
Two years later, we're still deciding how to remedy gender biases. Should we segregate classes by gender? If we do, is it illegal to do so in a public school? It's a true Pandora's box.
Many say gender bias is so ingrained in our culture that solutions may never be found. But for now, it's a debate raising hands across the nation.
They tried sex segregation this year at Theodore Roosevelt School in Cocoa Beach, Fla., but they'll probably never try it again.
In April, gender equity workshops prompted teachers to conduct an experiment for one nine-week grading period: If all 90 eighth-graders were taken out of coeducational classes and placed into single-sex math and science classes, would they learn more?
We may never know for certain. A few weeks into the program, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told school officials that the experiment violated state and federal laws outlawing segregation. Although the school was allowed to complete the program without a lawsuit, the ACLU warned that it would sue if the program continued next school year.
``We take a consistent stance against separate but equal education, whether based on race or sex,'' said Robyn Blumner, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. ``The whole point of Brown vs. Board of Education was to integrate society and to put the public back in our public schools.''
Ann Ballantine, part of a team of teachers coordinating the program, disagrees with the ACLU. She said the program was worthwhile. She knows the school board doesn't want to shell out the money to prove it in court.
``(The ACLU) doesn't seem to be concerned about what might be good for the kids,'' Ballantine said. ``Maybe the laws need to be looked at if they keep kids from learning. If we don't try things out, how will we know what works?''
The experiment probably worked, said Bill Hausemann, science teacher and team coor-dinator.
``My experience was that the girls seemed to get down to business quicker than the boys,'' Hausemann said. ``And the boys started doing better work.''
Hausemann said his teaching methods didn't change when he taught single-sex groups. The students changed.
Students always had worked in cooperative laboratory groups, dividing up duties. In coed classes, Hausemann said boys usually manipulated the equipment while girls wrote up the lab reports. When classes became single sex, girls no longer were relegated to secretarial work. They took on all duties, including leadership roles.
Students were asked about the experiment in attitude surveys. Results were almost exactly opposite between girls and boys, Hausemann said.
Two-thirds of the girls said they looked forward to the class but didn't think they learned more than they had in coed classes. Two-thirds of the boys said they didn't look forward to the class but admitted they probably learned more.
Other than the lawsuit threat, Ballantine saw only one drawback to classes segregated by sex.
``We did notice that when we put a whole group of boys together, the noise alone was (a drawback),'' she said. ``The boys have a lot more energy at this age. There was a problem of controlling a large group of boys. The girls were a lot quieter and got a lot done. The boys also accomplished their work, but with a great deal more energy.''
For troubled teens with family or school problems, maintaining high self-esteem, good grades and stable behavior may be difficult.
But two programs, Just for Girls, run by the Manatee County Girls Club Inc., and the Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranch, run by the Florida Sheriff's Association, are reporting successes in single-sex programs. Like others, their programs are not 100 percent effective, but they believe they are making significant differences in teenagers' lives.
``Girls and boys learn differently,'' said Becky Canesse, executive director for Just for Girls, which has three branches in Manatee County. ``Girls learn best in a peer-led approach. Boys learn best in an authority-led approach. Most schools are designed for boys - the way the desks are arranged with the teacher leading at the front. Here, we teach girls in the way they learn best.''
The program Canesse cited is for about 20 middle-school girls who go voluntarily to the Palmetto, Fla., branch to work on behavior and academic problems. They attend the alternative school program, which conducts math, science, English and history classes and a ``counseling'' class. There, the girls write journals and participate in group activities designed to explore feelings and develop personal growth.
``This group's grade average was D-minus when they started, and they ended with a B-minus,'' Canesse said.
It's the only school of its kind for middle-school girls in Manatee County. It has been commended by the governor as a model program. With help of Dee Edkins, school counselor, the teaching strategies have traveled across Florida.
``I use any different and innovative approach,'' Edkins said. ``One time, I played some music and we talked about songs and how they may be derogatory toward women. I wanted them to think about what someone's saying to them.''
Edkins said truancy declined because of the program. Part of that may be because Edkins calls parents whenever a student is absent. But students say a major reason why they don't skip school is because they want to be there. They like having boys out of the picture.
``Here, there are no guys to distract us,'' Samantha Brock said. ``It's just girls. No one's flirting with you.''
Mary Bailey, 14, said she likes the attention a smaller group offers, especially because boys causing trouble seemed to monopolize her teachers' time.
``In middle school, there are so many kids in your class, and teachers are always disciplining, '' Bailey said. ``They don't have time to teach you anything. By the time they start, class is over. . . . When you try to be good, they never give you credit. Here, they help you.''
That's the message Palmetto branch director Bill Safron wants to get across.
Although self-esteem drops for boys and girls between elementary school and high school, the drop for girls is much steeper. According to the American Association of University Women, about 67 percent of boys and 60 percent of girls in elementary school agree with the statement, ``I am happy with the way I am.'' By the time they get to high school, 46 percent of boys agree with the statement, but only 29 percent of girls do.
Safron said Just for Girls recognizes this and makes improving self-esteem a goal.
``When self-esteem is high, they're less likely to make poor choices for themselves - to drop out, get involved in drugs or become a pregnant teenager,'' he said.
Boys can have problems growing up, too.
The Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranch in east Bradenton is one group available to them. The three things most boys need when they come to the program are respect for authority, more focus on academics and better self-esteem, said Bill Brown, vice president of planned giving at the ranch.
Boys said they feel comfortable in a male environment and feel it probably prevents some conflict.
``I think it's good (without girls). I've been in programs with both girls and guys and sometimes, if the guys go out with the girls, it causes problems,'' said a student named Stanley. I always say what I think, but I can see how some boys might not if girls are around.''
KEYWORDS: GENDER EQUITY by CNB