I have often written on gender inequality, especially in regards to education, however I am most often speaking of developing nations. True I have also referred to reports on the United States educational pit falls and low rankings among industrialized nations. Nonetheless when I came across the following article, Single-Sex Classes on Trial Expect Girls to Sit Down and Shut Up, by Alex DiBranco on the Change.org Women’s Rights blog, I was floored to say the very least. DiBranco writes about a middle school in Kaplan, LA, where sex segregation had found its way into the classrooms.
The schools principal sought to segregate students based on a gender stereotyped idea that girls and boys cannot learn in the same environment, saying;
that boys are “more likely to enjoy argument and lively classroom debate” while “females may be content to simply observe,” requiring a different teaching approach based on gender.
The case has now made its way to the court’s, where they are facing a lawsuit for violation Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (renamed in 2002 the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002).
The story only highlights how far we still have to go to ensure that gender equality is achieved across the globe, and that the fight right here at home cannot be put on the back burner.
