Same Sex Schools May Help Boys Achieve

 By Gideon Daley,

    As boys begin to lag behind girls in education, all boys’ schools may be a way to help boys succeed. 

    Studies have found that boys are frequently lagging behind girls in education. The National Center for Education Statistics, for example, says that in 2014 women made up 57% of all college students, and that the number was only expected to increase, and a 2012 report by the Department of Education found that women were overwhelmingly more represented in gifted programs than men. 

    As boys seem to lag behind girls educationally, some point to all male schools as helping male students. The School Superintendents Association (AASA) found some trial results in South Carolina that suggest it may be better for boys’ learning.

    South Carolina, which permits single sex classes in public schools, Massachusetts does not allow, implemented several sex segregated classes in elementary and middle schools across the state. The AASA reported that the results were promising; 76% of parents of children in single sex classrooms were satisfied with their childrens’ education, and in the single sex classrooms of Kingstree Junior High, the percentage of 7th-grade males scoring below basic on the state tests dropped from 55% to 30% over the course of two years. 

 However, here in Massachusetts, all male schools and classrooms are increasingly rarer. Many of the few all male schools in Massachusetts have moved towards coeducational models.

Belllesini Academy, for instance, a middle school in Lawrence, became co-educational in 2015, and Malden Catholic High School in Malden started admitting girls (albeit in sex-segregated classes) in 2017. 

    Saint John’s Preparatory School, a college preparatory combined high school and middle school in Danvers, has one of the largest student populations among private schools in Massachusetts, with roughly 1500 students according to privateschoolreview.com. The school has been in operation as an all male school since 1907. 

    Elizabeth Dobrowolski, a math teacher who has worked at Saint John’s Prep’s high school for her whole career except for her student teaching, has seen the benefits of an all male student body. 

“I guess the big thing it adds is the comfort of not really trying to impress anyone? And not that all boys are trying to impress girls but usually I think it’s just, sometimes it’s usually more chill,” she said about the classroom experience. 

    When she speaks with her now graduated students, she said they generallyfound the experience a positive one. 

“It really always is that brotherhood thing. They really do find that really good connection with their peers,” she said.

The AASA reported that many parents of children in South Carolina’s all male classrooms had more confidence after that education. Andrew Orfaly, a Saint John’s Prep graduate of the class of 2021, and a current freshman at Wake Forest University, said he felt that brotherhood helped him gain more confidence. 

“I always described the prep as it feels like I’m in the bunk with the boys. I know other people are different but me, I’ve always been a shy, introverted kind of person, and I feel like the prep kind of allowed me to crack that shell,” Orfaly said. Orfaly said he plans to live in Massachusetts so he can someday send a son to Saint John’s. 

Dr. Edward Hardiman, Headmaster of Saint John’s Prep, had a similar experience in his time at all boys’ schools. 

“I was a very quiet unsure of myself kid in middle school and really, you know, didn’t have a positive experience in many ways in middle school. Then I went to Xaverian in Westwood, and I think for me that experience for me, educationally, kind of really helped me develop a sense of confidence that I never really had,” Hardiman said. 

Hardiman, who started as Saint John’s Prep’s principal in 2003, and is now in his eleventh year of being Headmaster, has worked in different New England all boys’ schools for his entire professional career, aside from his student teaching at a public middle school.

“There’s a sense of, kind of connection, in that people experience at Saint John’s and among the students, that the common word is brotherhood. And part of that connection and that trust is that it allows students to take a little bit more risks, and be a little bit more vulnerable,” Hardiman said on the school’s mission. 

Hardiman acknowledged that the all male model has its limitations. 

“How do you run a school for boys that doesn’t create an echo chamber that leads to just having the male perspective on things? And how do you create an environment and a possibility at a school for boys that helps boys learn how to develop and create positive and healthy relationships with women,” he said. He said that Saint John’s Prep tries to expand the all male perspective. 

For example, when Hardiman first started at Saint John’s Prep, there were no women on any of the leadership teams. Now they sometimes equal or sometimes outnumber the men. 

He also spoke about the Gender Justice Task Force, a group of juniors that speak to freshmen throughout the year about issues concerning masculinity and creating healthy relationships with young women. 

Hardiman acknowledged that there are always going to be limitations at an all boys’ school, and that the process of creating gender equality will never end. Still, Hardiman said he believed that the school made strides towards establishing gender equity. 

“It’s who we are, and this is what we know and this is what we’ve done and this is what we’ve had success with,” Hardiman said of the all male model.

The issue of gender equity in all male schools is one some have concerns for. A report from the University of Melbourne in Australia stated that in Australian all male schools, only 36% of texts studied in English classes were written by women, something the report stated.

“One way to explain the disparity is through the prevailing stereotype, the essentialist perspective, which posits that male – rather than female – authors and creators are more equipped to write about and imagine major social, political and cultural issues,” the report said. 

Some former Saint John’s Prep students, however, such as Jacob Garland, a current Dartmouth College freshman from North Andover and salutatorian in 2021, said the school needs to do more. 

“The thing that I really love about Saint John’s is that I think they provide a really good educational curriculum overall, combined with some awesome extracurricular opportunities like the service trips,” Garland said. 

Garland said that while he felt he benefited slightly from the all male academic environment, he felt it was wrong that young women could not experience the school’s programs. 

“Even if the male students lose out on some of the marginal benefits from that system, the disservice that is being done to the people who can’t experience the opportunities of Saint John’s is far greater,” Garland said, and that while he had had many formative experiences there, he felt that Saint John’s should shift to a coeducational model, even though he said it would be a difficult transition for the community. 

Alfonso Morell, of Andover, who graduated from Saint John’s Prep in 2021 and who is now a freshman at Purdue University, said that he felt the loss of the female perspective. 

“Saint John’s has a lot to offer, and what we have to offer is not available to girls, and girls across the board do not have the same education opportunities that guys do, it’s just a fact. And if we’re going to create a very enriching educational experience for guys, an educational experience, that does not help in a broader scope.” Morell said.

Men are falling behind in education today. A Pew Research study showed that 46% of women between the ages of 25 and 34 have college degrees, while only 36% of men in the same age range do. 

Advocates of all male schools can point to the successes they’ve had as a solution, despite the challenges many of their critics point to. Dr. Hardiman said that one of the biggest benefits of all male education, in his view, was, “That sense of brotherhood, that sense of trust, that sense of being able to kind of take risks and be vulnerable is something that differentiates the experience in a way that helps a certain segment of people learn,” he said.