Scottish Catholic Observer

A controversial academic from the US last week told Scottish Catholic parents that educating boys and girls together hurts their chances of succeeding in life.

The US psychologist Dr Leonard Sax (above) gave a seminar on the benefits of same-sex education last Friday at the £8,000-a-year all-girls Kilgraston Catholic School, in Perthshire.

“Adolescent culture is going the wrong way,” he said. “Parents have to assert their authority to keep their daughters from following the herd. The best possible thing you can do to help your daughter is to get her into a girls’ school.”

His starting point is that there are natural differences in how males and females learn because areas of their brains develop at different times.

“Girls’ fine-motor and language skills develop four years ahead of boys while boys’ spatial skills develop sooner than girls,” he said, “That’s why girls generally can write more legibly at an earlier age and why boys often understand maths concepts sooner.”

Dr Sax also claims that mixed education does not actually prepare children for the real world

“At the co-educational school, the focus is on how you look,” he said. “At the single sex school, the focus is more on who you are. And a very good case can be made that single sex education is actually better preparation for the real world. Because in the real world, being cute won’t get you very far. It won’t get you the kind of job you want. And the focus on who you are is going to be much more advantageous in the long run.”

However Dr Sax has attracted fierce criticism from the Lib Dem MSP for the Mid Scotland and Fife region Willie Rennie who said his comments denigrated the fine work done in mixed gender schools across Scotland.

“I have no issue with single-sex classes, but I do have an issue with someone who argues that only single classes can prepare young people for life,” he said. “To say that mixed classes undermine a child’s prospects is an insult to the high-quality teachers across the globe who turn out top class pupils from their schools.”

Despite these criticisms, Kilgraston Principal Frank Thompson said the speech was very well received and ‘our girls, their parents and our staff all came away inspired in different ways.’ Michael McGrath, the director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service, said Dr Sax’s ideas were ‘interesting’ but unlikely to be widely applicable.

“I think same-sex schools have their place in certain contexts,” he said. “There is some research that boys and girls learn separately at certain ages, but then there’s also research that suggests they learn better together at other ages. It’s an interesting area for discussion but I don’t foresee it leading to any wide scale changes.”