Same-Sex Classrooms

Re “Boys and Girls, Apart and Equal,” editorial, Jan. 16: “Separate but equal” by any efinition is still not equal. The way to cure the irresponsible behavior of teachers who pay more attention to boys, the boorish behavior of boys yelling out in class and the failure of boys to vote for girls in leadership positions is not to separate them. We need long-term goals,

Equality is not equality unless it exists on the same playing field. Being the “best girl” will never be the same as being the “best,” if the sexes are separate. How disappointing of you to give voice to those who would turn back the clock.

I cannot speak to the effects of separation on social problems, such as gang membership. Separate schools may serve a limited legitimate purpose there, but giving license to separate genders in schools (voluntary, as if a child has as much to say in this as a parent) is a bad idea. Pretty soon we’ll see the return of corporal punishment.

BARBARA A. RES

Northvale, N.J.

* As a mother of a 5-year-old girl, I think Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposal to expand to 24 the number of single-sex schools is a well-intended, but misguided, proposal.

The reality is that the business world is still largely male-dominated at higher levels of the corporate ladder. Separating girls from boys in school serves only to exacerbate rather than ameliorate existing gender differences, because girls will be deprived of the necessary opportunities to learn to compete with boys in order for them as adults to be confident and successful as females and leaders in the business world.

Instead, I think the governor should redirect the funds from this proposal toward programs designed to increase teacher awareness of gender-different treatment rather than offering to create separate educational programs.

DEBBIE COVEN

San Clemente