As an educator and a school leader, I have taken a special interest in the debate on the merits of public versus private school choice for Sasha and Malia Obama. Missing from the debate has been an obvious point: Sasha and Malia are girls. What is the best education for the girls who will be leaders tomorrow?
If I were a parent looking at schools for my daughters, I would ask whether the curriculum reflects the differences in how boys and girls learn? Are teachers trained to teach to these differences? How will girls be taught to approach science and math at their school? What opportunities exist for leadership?
Single-sex education, a terrific fit for so many girls, would get my vote. Within such an environment, girls take extraordinary intellectual risks, employ their voices powerfully, and experience no limits in imagining their future roles. The robotics class and the brass section will be filled with girls. The freedom and power inherent in these learning and developmental experiences are undeniable.
All parents, but especially the Obamas, have unique considerations when it comes to school choice. Whatever the decision, I hope the process will always include a careful look at the advantages of a girls’ school. Especially for those girls who aspire to leadership roles. After all, while the United States may now claim its first African American president, we are all still waiting for the first woman president.
I’m glad you brought this up, Ms. Hall! I’m concerned about where they will be educated as well, but for different reasons. As you know, I go to Howard University, right here in the heart of DC, and it is easy for any one who remotely knows anything about DC to recognize that there are many educational disparities and the opportunity for most black children living in this city to receive a challenging curriculum within their respective schools is scarce. Right now, I work as an Extended Day Program teacher at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School, one of the newer schools in DC that boast of their high achieving students, however, while they might be the creme de la creme in DC, they are most certainly no where near where they should be in terms of the national level. The DC public school system as a whole is sub par. I wonder what will it take in order for blacks who comprise most of the nation’s capital to receive a fair break. I know I’m jumping around the place, but think about it. Could you ever imagine Obama even sending his children to one of these poor performing DC public schools? Will it take Obama sending his children to a private school make the system realize the disadvantages they are placing on blacks? I wish I could formulate my thoughts a bit better, but for me, the questions are not where they will go to school as black girls, but how will these black girls and this black family inspire the nation’s capital to want better for their black youth.
What a great post, Jamila. To me the issues you raise speak to the larger issue of DC as still a largely segregated city. It really bothers me that as our nation’s capital the city continues to have two separate spheres that hardly intersect – the high-profile political/NGO sphere and the majority black sphere that is most of the city.
My sister is black and now lives in PG County, but moved there after 7 years in Foggy Bottom/AU Park (where my parents lived) and often talks about how weird it is to see both worlds – when she’s at work near McPherson Square, and when she’s at home. Her daughter is in a public talented & gifted program but doesn’t have nearly the opportunities and support I had in a private school in DC. I think it is people like her and you (and hopefully the Obamas) who will help bring the two worlds together and even out those educational opportunities for *all* DC residents.
Just finished reading The Trouble with Boys by Peg Tyre. It says that boys, even middle-class ones with cultural advantages, lag behind girls in schools. No Child Left Behind means more drilling and killing in public schools, and more of the dull academic work to which girls are better suited. (Girls don’t like it, either, but they don’t protest as much.) Boys tune out of school and leave achievement to the girls. Which sounds great for girls, until you read that now girls are being squeezed out of colleges in favor of less-qualified boys. (Apparently neither males nor females want to attend colleges with male: female ratios greater than 60%.)
Susan Pinker writes in The Sexual Paradox that 8% of all males have dyslexia.
“Two out of every three high school dropouts are male, and many of these dropouts have learning disabilities, of which dyslexia is the most common,” Pinker writes.
Our school systems need improvement for girls, yes, but let’s keep the boys in mind, too.
Emma Willard gave me everything I needed to succeed academically and professionally; college and medical school were less comprehensive and gave me less. My loyalty is always with Emma Willard. Nonetheless, I do not subscribe to the philosophy the single-sex education is the best format for girls, and I do not believe that girls are treated unfairly in most co-educational environments. The alleged single-sex advantage for girls is a thing of the past.