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“Girls and boys are as different from the neck up as the neck down,” asserts Dr. JoAnn Deak, psychologist and author of “Girls Will Be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters.” According to Deak, gender differences caused by hormones affect boys’ and girls’ learning styles.
“Girls’ and boys’ brains work differently and should thus be catered to in distinct ways in the classroom,” concludes Dr. Leonard Sax, research psychologist and founder of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE).
Leighann Scott Boland, a Richmond mother of boys, agrees. “Boys need an environment beyond the quiet classroom to learn,” she says. “Our school understands that boys need more hands-on, interactive projects to reinforce what they’ve learned in textbooks. They also allow for A LOT of wiggle time between subjects and have recess every day and P.E. four times a week.”
She’s referring to St. Christopher’s School, a boys’ school in Richmond’s West End. Several other private schools in the area also operate with a gender-separate philosophy.

Stereotypes Crumble
According to Sax, “We now have good evidence that single-sex classrooms can break down gender stereotypes. Girls in single-sex educational settings are more likely to take classes in math, science and information technology. Boys in single-sex schools are more likely to pursue interests in art, music, drama and foreign languages. Both girls and boys have more freedom to explore their own interests and abilities in single-gender classrooms.”
Dr. Rosemary C. Salomone, author of “Same, Different, Equal: Rethinking Single-Sex Schooling,” found that “All-girls settings seem to provide girls a certain comfort level that helps them develop greater self-confidence and broader interests, especially as they approach adolescence.”
Teachers Make a Difference
Separating the sexes can also allow teachers to do their job more effectively. “Collegiate separates boys and girls for Middle School, grades five to eight, which allows teachers and students to focus on the appropriate level of classes for each gender, since girls tend to mature at age 12 to 14 whereas boys mature more at 15 to 17,” says Ron Russ, father of an Upper School daughter and graduated son of Collegiate School.
Teachers of boys have chosen their profession for a reason, says Susan Mistr, director of communications at St. Christopher’s School. “They know how to challenge boys academically and how to engage them effectively. In particular, male teachers can pull from their own experiences as young learners in serving as teachers, coaches and mentors for their students.”
“One aspect I especially value about the all-boys experience is that the teachers really seem to understand boys,” agrees Nancy Steed, mother of two sons at St. Christopher’s. Her husband is a chaplain at the school. “The teachers allow for a lot of movement and healthy competition in the daily life of our boys, while at the same time teaching appropriate manners and respect for others.”

Opposites Distract
Nancy Norris, mother of daughters in St. Catherine’s Middle and Upper Schools, likes the removal of distractions that single-sex classes afford so her daughters “can focus on the task at hand.” She appreciates that while “the girls do have opportunities to meet boys at dances if they choose, …in class, they are not thinking about ‘is he looking at me.’”
“I have taught all-boy 7th and 8th grade classes and coed 9th grade classes,” says Rev. Durk Steed, Middle School chaplain at St. Christopher’s. “There is definitely less peer pressure in the all-boy middle school classes without the concern of impressing the girls in the classroom. For middle school boys, I truly think this helps the boys concentrate on the academic subject at hand.”

Maturity Brings Interaction
“Boys and girls develop differently—physically, emotionally, and intellectually. That simple sentence explains the raison d’etre of single-sex education,” says Rev. Steed. “Over time, the intellectual differences decrease (the boys catch up with the girls!). That explains why St. Chris offers coed classes with Upper Schoolers from our neighboring school, St. Catherine’s.”
“In the upper (high) school classes each year the girls are integrated more and more with mixed sex classes, so when they get into college it is not a shock to them,” Norris adds.
“At Collegiate, they bring students back together during their social years,” says Russ. “They tend to mix very well in their last four years, not as males and females, but as students bound for higher-level education.”

Kimberli Russ Vida graduated from Randolph-Macon College with a degree in English and a minor in Elementary Education. She is the mother of a girl and twin boys.

Single-Sex Schools in Richmond

See the Virginia Council for Private Education website, www.vcpe.org, for contact information and other single-sex schools in the state.

Benedictine High School Catholic, boys, grades 9–12

Collegiate School Boys/Girls, grades 5–8

Orchard House School  Girls, grades 5–8

Saint Gertrude High School Catholic, girls, grades 9–12

St. Catherine’s School Episcopal, girls, grades JK–12

St. Christopher’s School Episcopal, boys, grades JK–12

Seven Hills School Boys, grades 5/6–8

Shaarei Torah Jewish, girls, grades 9–12

Yeshiva of Virginia  Jewish, boys, grades 9–12

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