THE SINGLE-GENDERED learning environment may no longer be an option reserved solely for Toronto’s private school parent.
As the Toronto District School Board closes in on plans to introduce single-sex schools to the public realm, debates surrounding the constructive nature of this change continue to pick up steam.
“For me this is about choice,” says Dr. Christopher Spence, director of education for the Toronto District School Board. “Parents and students want more choice in learning environments for their children. Single-gender education will work for some students just because they feel they can be themselves.
“When I was visiting a boys’ academy and talking to students, they emphasized they were better able to focus on their studies and pursue their interests. In fact, one boy, all six-feet-four and 230 pounds of him, was the lead in the school play and on the football team. He said he wouldn’t do that at a coed school.”
Since his appointment to the board in 2009, Spence has spearheaded the development of single-gender education in Toronto and was largely responsible for the TDSB trustees reviewing a concept report on programs of choice last March.
The report, which included the proposed establishment of a girls’ school and boys’ school in Toronto, was approved for a feasibility study, now being conducted to review such things as available space, desire, location and cost.
“Right now we’re just looking at a school-within-a-school model, [seeing] where we would have space in a current school to set up, et cetera,” says Karen Grose, superintendent of innovative programs and futuristic schools for the TDSB.
Eglinton-Lawrence trustee Howard Goodman is voicing strong opposition to the idea of opening single-gendered institutions in Toronto, saying that he is not adverse to singlegendered education in practice, but feels its inclusion in the TDSB will contradict the board’s current model of inclusiveness.
“There are two main reasons that are being given for going in this direction,” says Goodman. “One is that boys aren’t doing as well as girls, and this will help boys who are at risk do better.The other is that it will attract new students to the TDSB.
“The student success argument doesn’t take into account that by creating these schools we’re sending a clear message that boys are different from girls and telling teachers that if there’s a boy in your class you’re not reaching then you can just send them off to boys’ school. That is a very dangerous thing because we may be doing good things for 400 boys [who can attend these schools] but doing untold damage to thousands of others who will be written off as simply unreachable.”
“As for the second reason, enrolment, well yes, there is some attractiveness for parents to having their kids in boys’ and girls’ schools. But parents who are sending their kids to Havergal are sending them there for a whole bunch of different reasons. ”
Iwona Kurman, principal of Heydon Park Secondary School (the city’s only stand-alone, singlegender public school), is in favour of the TDSB offering more singlegendered schools.“I think it should be a choice in different parts of the city,”she says.“But I don’t think it’s for everyone. If we are talking about academic success, the lack of that kind of component seems to be working here.”
Yet experts continue to argue whether this separation is constructive for younger learners.
“At [the Institute of Child Study (ICS)], we believe that single-sex education is not the best solution at this tender age, “ says Richard Messina, vice-principal of ICS’s laboratory school at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education.
“In spite of their developmental differences, girls and boys learn a lot from each other.”
Spence admits he and the TDSB have some hills to climb before his vision comes to fruition.
The results of the program of choice feasibility study, still in the process of being conducted, will be presented to a newly elected board of trustees in the late fall.