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GENDER & DIVISION

School Separates Boys From Girls - Because of Their Hormones

The ACLU is calling it a violation of federal law

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t +

Image: sustainablecycles.wordpress.com

Snakes and snails and...being better at math because of daily testosterone surges. Or so some claim.

Marie Leech at Alabama Live reports on the latest stink to pass beneath the nose of the American Civil Liberties Union: single-sex classrooms basing their theory of education on pseudoscience. The ACLU has filed a complaint with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights calling out Birmingham, Alabama's Huffman Middle School for being in breach of federal law banning sex-based discrimination in public schools.

Since 2010, Huffman Middle School has separated boys and girls from one another in all classes and even lunch, in addition to utilizing teaching material that claims boys are better at math because their "bodies receive daily surges of testosterone." Girls, on the other hand, "have similar skills only a few days per month when they experience increased estrogen during the menstrual cycle."

"Assuming that boys and girls learn according to their hormones is just an old-fashioned stereotype," said the ACLU's Olivia Turner. "No child should be forced to conform to one theory of how he or she should learn."

While most studies indeed reveal a gender gap favoring boys when it comes to achievement in math, no reputable studies (to our knowledge) claim the reason for the gap is due to hormones.

Via Alabama Live and the National Math and Science Initiative.
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Does Huffman Middle School's single-sex classroom policy offend you?

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78 Comments (view in Forum)

  • Fishbone345
    !
    "Girls, on the other hand, "have similar skills only a few days per month when they experience increased estrogen during the menstrual cycle."
    What a ridiculous statement. Absolute rubbish. Makes sense Alabama would do this. I need to set up an office in Bama to sell these bridges I have.
  • NO-BAMA
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    Why should anyone be offended? This is stupid. Schools are for educating. Students are in school to be educated.
    Are the students learning? How are the grades of this students?
    What's wrong the ACLU doesn't have a "race baiting" situation to exploit right now?
  • GetAwake
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    Obama won re-election, and the police actually arrested a guy that shot a kid in Florida WITHOUT being urged to do so. Even the ACLU has quotas to meet...
  • guest
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    Exactly, schools are for learning so what does their gender have to do with it? Separating them creates segregtion. Remember the blacks and whites being segregated not to long ago? We don't want this again concerning gender !!!
  • Cheenoguy
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    You didn't read the article did you? The problem isn't that they are seperated. The problem is that the curriculums are different and deny girls a proper education in mathematics.
  • NO-BAMA
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    @Cheenoguy I guess YOU didn't have the article read to you fully. Where does the article state that girls aren't being taught math? Maybe you should go and take some English comprehension classes.
    So, did you have the article misread to you or did you just want to make something up,(lie) like most Barry supporters?
  • Cheenoguy
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    @NO-BAMA
    Since 2010, Huffman Middle School has separated boys and girls from one another in all classes and even lunch, in addition to utilizing teaching material that claims boys are better at math because their "bodies receive daily surges of testosterone." Girls, on the other hand, "have similar skills only a few days per month when they experience increased estrogen during the menstrual cycle."
    Their math education is being based on the few days of the month these wackos think girls can actually learn math.
    As usual I suspect you didn't bother to read the article but just went on a rant about liberals and Obama because you refuse to acknowledge that anyone on the right can do anything wrong and if the ACLU is standing up to someone you assume that the person who is attacking someone's civil rights is republican (good reason for that). Try reading and then saying something that actually contributes to the conversation.

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  • DerivePI
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    boy does not equal girl. If a school wants to separate boys from girls and teach them the same material in different ways, I say go for it. Neither sex is being excluded, denied or discriminated against from what I've read so far. Of course with the even-keeled ACLU pursuing "justice" in this case...
  • Cheenoguy
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    If these goobs believe that girls can only learn math certain days during their cycle I would guess that the girls are not getting as much education in math.
    Also since girls aren't all on the same cycle I can't see how it would even work.
  • DerivePI
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    @Cheenoguy - and that would be a problem with Title 9. Not sure what the reason is, but in my field, engineering, women are not the majority. I like the idea of small scale testing in order to find better ways to teach students. I'm not sure the ACLU has good intentions on this one.
  • jessejaymes
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    I didn't vote. I don't have a problem with separating by gender at schools but a couple of things cross my mind. If it were not for math I would have been an honor roll student but I'm male and I guarantee you that during my high school years there was no higher level of testosterone in the nation than mine and a C was a RARE high grade in math for me,. Pure nonsense. Secondly, I seriously doubt that much of a percentage of teen pregnancies are happening during class time.
  • MRMacrum
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    My last three years of high school were spent at an all male military academy. Any opinion I might have would be tainted by that experience. I do know that it was easier to concentrate in class with no sweet young things sharing the same space as me.
  • Realthinker
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    How did this country survive before the ACLU? How did we manage to educate our children before separate buildings and classes were eliminated? How did we manage before prayer, not to mention the Ten Commandments, were outlawed nearly everywhere?
    The ACLU serves no real purpose other than making itself a thorn in everyone's side.
  • Deb2me
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    Good to know you think our civil liberties are thorns in your side, although you incorrectly assumed it was in "everyone's side." Not a thorn in my side.
  • jessejaymes
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    @Deb2me As always I am the middle ground in this one. The ACLU has served a useful purpose many times regardless of what the right wing things of them. The ACLU has also been a pain in the ass many times regardless of what the left wing thinks. That's what happens when you try and practice freedom. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes not.
  • Realthinker
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    @Deb2me Oh please.... "Civil liberties" requires boys and girls in the same classroom at all times because? Just what civil liberty is being violated by separate classes? What civil liberty is being violated by the presence of the Ten Commandments on a lawn?
  • woodtick57
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    @Realthinker if the earning opportunities are not the same, that could be a civil liberties issue. What do the ten commandments have to do with this?

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  • woodtick57
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    So if humans can't learn as well when the sexes intermingle, they must not work as well either. Guess women should stay home and just get pregnant. Maybe we should cover them when they re in public so they do not distract us productive males during our workday....

    Funnny how crazy people never see how idiotic their logic is...
  • Dan_Tien
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    If they said that they put boys and the girls into separate classes for a different reason (for instance, in order to give girls a chance to speak) then they would have no problem from the ACLU. They'd probably get an award instead.
  • Zazziness
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    While I do not think gender separation will help adolescents learn math, I do think it will teach them creative problem solving as they work out ways to defy the system.
  • DyingBreed
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    The only sensible reason I could think of for separating the genders in school is to keep them from being distracted. How many times to boys act up in school because they are trying to impress a girl?

    Of course, that doesn't always apply. When it comes to sports and the such boys work harder when girls are present. Again, to impress the girls.
  • RobertJHarsh
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    I think this experiment should be carried out to a logical conclusion. I am not ready to say "it's ridiculous" until I see some data disproving there are benefits...or if there are benefits.
  • Politic-n
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    Girls should be required to take several home-ec classes as well and learn to cook properly! Lack of knowledge in this area is making the nation fat with overdependence on fast food because of lazy parents who don't know how to make a decent meal anymore.
  • Deb2me
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    Huh...and I thought the obesity of this nation was attributable to all the single mothers who lack the time and money to cook a decent meal since the fathers shirked their responsibilities and abandoned their children.
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