grade students at Cheval-Blanc School in Gatineau have been attending two separate classes based on their gender. In a column in Le Droit published last week , the teachers in charge of these classes explained that the boys’ class will do “more robotics, technology, programming,” while in the girls’ class, science will be more focused “on plants, gardening.”
What motivated the elementary school to embark on such an adventure? On Monday, our interview requests were refused by the Draveurs school board, which “considers that everything has been said in the column […] by Mr. Patrick Duquette in the newspaper Le Droit .” However, the school board wrote to us that it was a project “designed by the Cheval-Blanc school team.”
Single-sex classes in Quebec schools are generally the result of initiatives by teachers or school administrators, notes Roch Chouinard, professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Montreal.
It’s nothing very concerted. Every now and then, there’s a school that tries this idea.
Roch Chouinard, professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Montreal, on single-sex classes
But, he adds, there is no research to suggest that separating boys from girls, or putting them together, is beneficial.
“I conclude that it does not have an effect on the variables studied most of the time, such as academic performance and dropout prevention, for example,” says Roch Chouinard, who nevertheless specifies that teacher motivation influences that of students, which could play a role in this case.
In 2008, an elementary school in Louiseville tried a similar experiment with its Grade 6 classes . “It was the initiative of a school principal who believed in it at the time,” says Anne-Marie Bellerose, head of communications for the Chemin-du-Roy school board.
The project lasted a year, but did not catch on in the school board. “It was never in the cards to push this initiative,” continues Anne-Marie Bellerose. Today, all classes in this school board are mixed.
“Gender stereotypes”
Quoted in the article in Le Droit , the teachers observe that girls have less interest in mathematics.
This statement surprises Anne Roy, professor of mathematics education at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières.
“That’s where I disagree. You have to work with everyone’s interests, you can’t generalize, every person is different,” she says.
Maybe many girls are the same, many boys are the same, but by saying “all boys” or “all girls” we are promoting stereotypes and not improving the situation.
Anne Roy, professor of mathematics education at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières
An opinion shared by Roch Chouinard, who notes that in the article in Le Droit , the teachers note that boys like to write less than girls. “A guy, you tell him: a balloon is red, it is red, and that’s it. Whereas the girls will be able to write a whole page on the red balloon!”, a teacher from the Cheval-Blanc school told the daily newspaper.
“That’s tiring, because we work to multiply sexist stereotypes when we don’t pay attention to these approaches. I prefer an approach where we let children situate themselves,” says the professor.
We must avoid putting children into boxes based on their gender. Let them develop their interests based on what they have experienced, not decide for them,” continues Roch Chouinard.
There may be advantages to sporadically creating activities specifically for boys or girls, notes Anne Roy, but single-sex education should not become “the solution” to boys’ or girls’ school problems. “School co-education is necessary so that boys and girls learn to live together,” concludes the professor.
In recent years, several private schools in the province have abandoned single-sex classes for primarily economic reasons. This is the case at the École des Ursulines de Québec, where at the start of the 380th school year this year, boys and girls were seated side by side for the first time. “There is an economic aspect, but also a social one,” notes Jacques Ménard, the school’s director general. Until last year, girls “did not have the opportunity” to take a sports concentration, while boys could not enroll in concentrations in English or literature. “This is an inequity that we have resolved,” says Jacques Ménard.