3. Middle school

The middle school children are passing through a unique phase of life. The curriculum for these students should be carefully tailored to the specific needs of the age level and yet maintain continuity from elementary school to high school. The academic program, which includes English, mathematics, reading or foreign language, science and social studies is designed to continue the development of basic concepts, skills and attitudes started in the elementary grades. New objectives are introduced that will also be useful in high school, college and life. The Middle School curriculum centers around the learning processes; factual matter is the base for the development of those processes.

The so-called "non-academic" or special area subjects such as art, home economics, industrial arts and music hip to expand concepts, skills and attitudes but place greater emphasis on developing sensitivity to² and interest in the arts.

Physical education and after school sports enable middle school students to develop athletically, and provide physical activity.

Informal activities such as student councils, yearbook committee, dance and other after school events also contribute to the social development of the middle school child.

1 to maintain continuity— обеспечить преемственность

2 sensitivity to — восприимчивость к чему-л.

CO-EDUCATION: A HIGH PRICE TO PAY

Research carried out in the Eighties strongly indicated that co-education was generally better for boys than for girls. The dangers of single-sex education for boys have often been stated, and there has long been an assumption that girls benefit from coeducation in the same way. Recent research tells us that this assumption is wrong. Girls studying in co-educational schools can’ it seems, pay a high price in diminished career ambitions, poor self-confidence and under-achievement in academically rigorous subjects such as science and mathematics.

Girls' schools are working hard to compete with the independent boys' schools that are currently increasing their intake. Marlborough, the pioneer, has increased its number of girls and begun admitting them at 13. The battle for girl pupils is growing fiercer all the time. Avaril Burgess, head teacher of South Hempstead High School, believes parents needs to consider the effect of mixed classroom learning on reinforcing gender "stereotypes" She believes that in the halfway house type of co-education favored by independent boys' schools, men become "macho" and girls are forced to be inarticulate and passive. This is inevitable, she says, when the school is still run by the male-dominated senior teachers with little insight into gender education issues. She points to a study by Professor Hoyle of London University showing how boys were allowed to jump the queue to gain access to limited computer facilities. As a result girls’ choice of career of computing suffers.

The recent introduction of co-education by Oxbridge colleges seems to have had the same harmful effect on girls' academic performance as identified in schools. In 1958, 8.1 per cent of men and 7.9 of women won firsts. In 1973, the corresponding figures were 12 and 12.1 per cent. Since the mid-eighties, when both men and women's colleges have admitted members of the opposite sex, 16.1 per cent of men have gained firsts, but only 9.8 per cent of women. As Averil Burgess argues: "Maybe the girls fall too readily into the sock-washing and meal-providing mode for the benefit of male colleagues and to the detriment of their work. At least a single sex institution offers the freedom not to behave as a woman."

No one is suggesting that boys should be restricted to single-sex education; co-education is here to stay. But boys' schools with a minority of girls should take care to protect the latter from social domination by the boys. Parents should consider a single-sex school as a first option for their daughters, even if they choose co-education for their son. Maybe the implicit contradiction in that statement will only be resolved when girls' schools admit boys on gender-aware terms.