Tonbridge School was founded in 1553 and is one of the prestigious boys’ private boarding schools in England, referred to as “public schools”. (Interestingly, this terminological quirk comes from the fact that these schools were historically accessible to the general public (who were willing to pay the fees) and under some public governance, at a time when private tuition or schooling restricted to local districts predominated.)
In a bombshell email sent out a couple of weeks ago (at the time of writing), it was announced that 20 girls would join the Lower 6th in September 2028 as day pupils, with girls joining boarding houses in September 2030 (as they need to build a new house to accommodate this).
This has (re)ignited the debates between traditionalists, progressives and people in between.
Times have changed
My opinion, is that the structure of these schools was born out of a time when men and women lived much more different lives in adulthood, thus it made sense for their schooling to be segregated, in order to tailor their learning to equip them with the specific skills they’d need to thrive in adulthood. However, now adult life mixed-sex in the vast majority of circumstances and working environments. Schooling is fundamentally about preparing children for adulthood, and so it makes sense for schooling to be mixed to expose children to the opposite sex.
Unhealthy sexual dynamics
Single sex schooling tended to magnify the sexual dynamic between sexes, as there would be perhaps 2-3 socials per year where a year group of boys was bussed off to meet a year group of girls. This favoured the most ‘forward’ attributes within each cohort, as it was a case of “now is your chance to meet girls or boys and get their numbers etc.”. In a mixed-sex environment, one coexists alongside the opposite sex and so friendships and relationships can bloom over the long term, which I think is a healthier and more organic setup.
Yin and Yang
Men and women, boys and girls have slightly different leanings in terms of personality traits on a demographic level, so being mixed together can act as a balancing agent neutralising some of the “cliquiness” of girls’ schools and the boisterous excesses of boys’ schools. Where it can introduce some distraction, these emotional pulls are going to be present in the adult world, and so learning to manage them is part of a rounded learning experience.
Reduction in breadth?
Some potential downsides of mixed sex education. When single sex, it is possible the total breadth of skills men and women learned between them is larger, and that the corners get cut and streamlined as everyone piles into the same education stream. One example I can think of off the top of my head is that my mother learned needlework and seamstress skills at school, and now, a generation later, neither myself nor my sister have any ability in this domain, meaning we have to pay someone or “ask mum” in the event we have a pair of jeans that need patching. Some of the skills that would have traditionally been taught to one sex, rather than being deleted from the itinerary, it should be offered as a core skills class for all (provided it is still of some utility in the real world). One doesn’t need to become an expert, but some foundational ability can prove valuable in later life.
Will it influence the quality of learning?
There is also discussion about whether or not boys and girls learn better together or separately. The evidence there seems to be very mixed. In controlled studies and meta-analyses, differences seem to be trivial. It is a known fact that girls are currently outperforming boys in in secondary and higher education, but whether girls and boys are schooled together or separately seems not to be influencing this, and it is likely more down to exam format changes (eg favouring coursework over end of year assessment).
Concluding thoughts
In conclusion, we are at the intersection between the fondness of tradition and the practicalities of world which exists today. Schools are there to prepare children for the real world, and the real world is mixed, thus it makes sense for schools to be mixed.
One final note to ponder. If there is sufficient demand for single sex schools, should some remain, to be chosen according to the taste of parents? If there is a shift towards mixed schooling, should there be religious exemptions? Where there may be political ideology driving, for example, increased female representation at top schools and universities, perhaps we will see asymmetry in the desire to make boys’ schools mixed, but maybe girls’ schools (and all girls’ university colleges like Newnham and Murray Edwards) may cling onto their single sex ways for longer.
We’ll see!