In developing our Character Statement last year, we highlighted the fact that we are a co-educational school. Most, if not all, of our parents have selected Hills Grammar because it is indeed co-educational. From 1982 to this day, we have been ‘intentionally’ so, as we have a firm belief that children learn and develop better in environments where the genders are represented, where the different skills, perspectives, lens and passions are a feature of our daily learning.
I have taken some of the following key points from an article, authored by Paul Teys - Principal at Hunter Valley Grammar to remind us all of The Benefits of Co-education.
A discussion about the benefits of co-education needs, to begin with, clarity around purpose. What is the function of education, why do children and young people spend their formative years in our care, at our schools? What are we educating young people for, or about, or to do?
In the 21st century, schools must work keenly to prepare students for a world beyond their school gates, where the traits of tolerance, respect, initiative, service, resilience and co-operation are as valuable as academic knowledge and skills. If a school’s purpose is framed around preparing young people for the changing, diverse, uncertain world they are to inherit, then the educational experience should reflect the diversity and reality of such a world. There is simply too much to be gained from having the genders learning side-by-side over a sustained and extended period of time.
In co-educational schools, children and young people share in the joy of learning together, developing mutual respect and understanding for each other. Working and learning together in natural settings where gender equality and opportunity is promoted, in both academic and co-curricular activities, reflects the most realistic and authentic learning environment.
Working together in the classroom and in the school community provides children and young people with the opportunity to learn from each other intellectually, as well as socially. They engage collaboratively, exchange ideas and debate issues. Importantly a co-educational setting adds to the richness and diversity of thinking and learning that fills all classrooms in all of our schools, a presence that similarly permeates all facets of society.
Co-education improves the ways students think, learn and collaborate; children can develop confidence, empathy, understanding and leadership as they navigate the challenges of social and emotional growth, while encouraging success in one another.
Co-educational schools are successful in challenging sexist attitudes. Many subjects allow for considerable classroom discussion and debate; different perspectives on the same issues and that each approach has a great deal to offer the other. Patience and respect for alternate views is something to be nurtured, and valued, particularly in today’s world.
We’ve long recognised that the genders work alongside each other more effectively in partnership across all areas of the socio-political landscape, rather than segregated from each other. Co-education is a more natural reflection of society; our schools better reflect the diversity of our culture. Co-educational schools reflect the world that our children and young people will live in.
Friendships develop in a very natural way in co-educational schools. This happens because there are so many activities, societies and clubs in the school in which the students take part in a pleasant, well supervised environment. Healthy friendships develop between genders through the course of their schooling, because they share in the triumphs and the disappointments, the humour, the sadness and the challenges of adolescence.
Children and young people interact with each other as contemporaries in all aspects of everyday school life. In doing so, they build a sound platform for personal growth, peer connectedness, relationships with others and the development of appropriate value systems. Co-education in adolescence helps to moderate and balance the gender specific behaviours.
Co-education provides a more realistic way of shaping young people to take their places naturally in the wider community. It helps to break down the misconceptions of gender and provides an excellent foundation for the development of realistic, meaningful and lasting relationships in later life.
Co-educational schools prepare students to succeed in post-Secondary education and to transition to the workforce properly prepared for the social dynamic. Collaboration in the classroom helps develop confidence in students for their life after school, especially at university, and as the next generation of leaders.
From a practical sense, families can keep their children together in the one school, sharing in those formative experiences collectively, enhancing the value of community and identity, not to mention the significant advantages in efficiencies and practicalities.
Let us not forget, that through education, our students learn not just about curriculum. They also spend nearly 15 years learning about themselves, learning who they are. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, from the University of Cambridge, stresses that “Separating children for a number of years means they will not be mixing and learning about each other”. One’s understanding of self is inherently shaped by the relationships formed with those around them and an awareness of how they fit into the fabric of their world. With this in mind, co-education promotes a far more authentic understanding of one’s self and one’s potential to make valuable contributions to society as a respectful, resilient and collaborative adult.
Choose co-education; it is a natural choice.
Michael Smith | Principal
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