Ms. Vaughn's thoughts on the NY Times article

Well, hmmm. . . . The author of the article clearly doesn't like single gender schools or Dr. Sax, the main pro-single gender schools guy.

She brings up a few ways to rebut information that comes from Dr. Sax:

• Sax is a doctor, not a teacher. He has no training in education. He should stick to doing what he knows how to do
• Basing single gender schools on brain research is dangerous: There are just too many exceptions to the rules. If we say that boys and girls learn differently ON AVERAGE, that doesn't mean that ALL boys and ALL girls learn different. In fact, the research shows that many, many many boys and girls would be harmed by this approach. In case you aren't familiar, the Sax approach is that boys and girls have different brains and learn differently, so we need to teach them differently. For example, girls' classrooms should be set up in a circle so girls can relate to one another while boys should have more of an opportunity to move around. Well, lots of boys would learn well in circles and lots of girls would enjoy moving around more! There are TOO MANY EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE!!
• Title IX (nine) is federal law that says schools cannot discriminate on the basis of sex. It also says that single gender schools MUST BE VOLUNTARY. Forcing everyone is not voluntary and would clearly violate the law.

The article does a good job summarizing the two sides of the argument. Dr. Sax rebuts the article on his website if you're affirmative (www.singlesexschools.org)