RE “THE single-sex school myth: No scientific basis for teaching boys and girls separately, report says’’ (Op-ed, Sept. 25): If single-sex schools had no value, there would be no market for them. Yet, as Gareth Cook writes, there are more than 500 public schools offering single-sex education, up from “about a dozen’’ in 2002. Private single-sex schools have existed and been sustained by eager parents for centuries, before research on brain differences was even a consideration.
How children learn is a function of nature and nurture, of whatever they bring into this world in conjunction with what they are taught - for example, the proverbial pink and dolls for girl, blue and trucks for boys. Inherent in those toys are messages about expectations of, and assignments to, girls and boys, which evolve into what we call gender stereotypes.
