Murrieta takes 'sex' out of classes

By: PHIL STRICKLAND - For The Californian | Monday, August 28, 2006 9:29 PM PDT ∞

Things have changed in public education in 50 years. Sadly, too many of the changes seem not to have had a very positive impact on reading, writing, arithmetic and the learning thereof.

Before the educational revolution got in full swing in the '60s, teachers had the power, and used it, to reinforce the reason we were all there.

In one extreme case, an elderly (by seventh-grade standards) music teacher with an unfortunate resemblance to a porcine cartoon character named Petunia, took the last half of the school year off for a "rest" from a group of boys who had such an affinity for the seventh grade that they hung around for two and three years.

In her class, they had found the perfect stage to show off brazenly for the girls.

Enter Mr. Sapienza, the freshly recruited weight-training instructor from the Maryland Reform School for Boys. In less than a week, using nonviolent methods that probably would get him fired today, he had the "drapes" as they were called ---- elsewhere they were "hoods" ---- singing "Teen Angel" a cappella. He was very persuasive in getting "students" to at least act as if they cared about getting an education.

Thankfully, Southwest County seems not to have classroom discipline problems of the magnitude of Baltimore in the 1950s and although our local high schools have acquItted themselves pretty well for the most part in the exit-exam success rate, there is room for improvement ---- especially when American students are compared to their counterparts around the world.

Now, one school has expanded a limited program it had to improve the learning atmosphere for its students. That program just a few years ago was as daring as bringing in Mr. Sapienza.

The school is Thompson Middle School in Murrieta. It's daring action? Expanding the single-sex-class program from physical education and academic-support courses to include math, science, English and social studies.

Eight years ago, only four public schools in the U.S. had single-sex academic classes. Now, there are more than 200 and Thompson is one of them.

Lots of folks scoff at the idea that single-sex classes are a better atmosphere for learning. After all, it would debunk the feminist notion that, aside from the baby thing, there are no gender differences.

There is, however, compelling research by scientists at institutions such as Johns Hopkins, Yale and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland that demonstrably proves differences in structure and function of the male and female brain. Such is not the case when it comes, for example, to race.

Naysayers also whine that the single-sex classes don't prepare students for an "integrated" world. Someone should make them aware that boys and girls interact not just in the classroom. And, if by the "integrated" world, they mean life after high school or college, the boys and girls will "integrate" well before that. You can count on it.

Give credit to the parents, and students, in Murrieta; they're taking to the idea. Thompson Middle School has initiated 16 such classes and there is not room for everyone that wants in. Everyone involved gets an "A."

Who knows, down the road perhaps the percentage of students who just can't pass that exit exam won't even come near today's 10 percent.

-- Phil Strickland of Temecula is a regular columnist for The Californian. E-mail: philipestrickland@yahoo.com.

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