THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604050064
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Teenspeak
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
ACROSS THE country, segregation is starting to be ``in'' again.
Separate-gender math classes - where boys and girls are isolated from each other to turn out better students - are having a real impact on test scores.
Adolescent boys, the theory goes, tend to focus more on their work when they aren't surrounded by girls. And girls become better class participants when boys aren't around to constantly blurt out answers.
But students at Northeastern High School in Elizabeth City believe that girls, the main beneficiaries of these programs, could ultimately fail in the real world if they aren't taught to compete with their male counterparts.
``I don't think it's a good idea. Both sexes need to know how to react among each other,'' said Michelle Vu, a 16-year-old sophomore.
The students' comments were based on a recent news story from western North Carolina about the Charlotte Day School, which recently separated algebra classes. In those math classes and others across the country, girls tend to perform better on tests and participate more freely.
Educators believe that, in general, girls have been conditioned to be more math-phobic, a notion bolstered by teachers' tendencies to call on boys for answers. Separating the sexes levels the playing field for girls to learn mathematic principals and become more competitive later on in life, advocates say.
But at Northeastern, students question the long-term benefits.
``Most colleges are not all-girl or all-boy schools, and by saying in high school I'm going to separate you from the girls or you from the boys is really not fair to either of them,'' said senior Raymond Cox, 17.
Cox also said that boys might suffer if they are not allowed to compete against girls who excel in the subject. ``If I want to be the best and the best in the class is a girl, I should be able to go up against her,'' he said.
``If you want to be equal, then you need to learn to act equal,'' said senior Tonie George, 18. ``By separating girls from boys at a young age, it's only going to make room for more separatism when they graduate.'' by CNB