Are Single Sex Lessons a Good Idea?

 

Single-sex schooling is nothing new and it was once the norm for boys and girls to be educated in separate classrooms. Many private schools still admit only either boys or girls but are single sex lessons a good idea?

 

Yes – Victoria

Studies have shown that boys and girls have very different learning styles and therefore achieve better results when they are taught separately. Boys tend to learn best if they can see physical demonstrations or graphics about the subject whereas girls learn best by discussing a subject. It makes sense then to teach them separately so that teachers can tailor the lesson to the relevant learning style. Even small practical details can make a difference – for example, boys learn better in a room that’s slightly cooler whereas girls prefer a warm environment. It’s much easier to cater to the needs of everybody if girls and boys are taught separately.

I think it becomes even more important to have single sex lessons as children reach their teenage years. Flirting, bickering, jealousy; these things all arise when you put boys and girls together and produce a real distraction. Children will be thinking about impressing each other, rather than concentrating on their lessons. I also find that children make better friendships when they are in single-sex groups as girls are less catty when boys aren’t around and boys don’t feel the need to show off as much without girls to impress.

There’s plenty of time outside of school for girls and boys to mix, so lessons should be tailored to learning effectively. After all, our children’s educations are so important that we should do all we can to make teaching successful.

 

No – Jude

A good, rounded education is about more than just learning academically. Kids also need to learn how to manage social situations, and understand the complexities of different relationships. If we separate boys and girls, they will miss out on a big chunk of what school life is all about.

I went to an all-girls school and as a result found it quite hard to have friendships with men later in life. I didn’t know how to talk to them and thought that any man who spoke to me was trying to chat me up, even if they were just being polite. Children will have to mix with the opposite sex when they grow up so it’s best to teach them how to do this from within the safety of the classroom, rather than letting them flounder later in life.

It’s all very well to say that boys and girls have different learning styles but teachers generally aren’t trained to teach boys and girls differently so even if it is true, it doesn’t really make much difference. Also, I think telling teachers to adapt their teaching based on gender could be quite dangerous as there is a risk that they will stereotype and children won’t get all the opportunities that they otherwise might.

I think children should be encouraged to appreciate different opinions. If boys and girls do take a different approach to learning based on their gender then that provides a great opportunity for them to gain new insights by seeing topics from a new perspective.

Categories: boys, Children, girls, learning, learning styles, sex lessons, single, single sex, taught separately

How to Go Back to Your New Years Resolutions and Succeed

Is anyone still keeping up with their New Year’s resolutions? Probably not. However, as it’s now Lent and all, now is a great time to pick up your resolutions again – and actually make them stick. According to certified fitness and nutrition specialist Erika Nicole Kendall, who writes the award-winning blog A Black Girl’s Guide to Weight Loss, ‘The reality is, while most resolutions are noble and honest declarations of things we genuinely need to change in our everyday lives, they are far more complex than we originally estimated. The most popular of resolutions – quitting smoking, exercising regularly, being more responsible with money, and eating healthier – are usually massive umbrellas under which we’d find other, more complex, less cutesy-sounding things. Either way, if we want to accomplish these huge goals, we have to dig a little deeper.’ So how do you approach your wellness goals in a sensible and achievable way?

 

1. Join the Gym: Kendall notes, ‘I know you wanted to hit that gym five days a week, but the gym just ain’t for everybody. It can be out of the way, it can be boring, you could feel out of place – a major deterrent – or the gym staff aren’t very helpful or encouraging, any number of things could happen that make you feel less and less like you should be there. No worries! Instead of committing to doing this thing that you can’t stand, commit to trying a new activity every week, once a week, until you find something you love in a community that welcomes you. For some, that’s crossfit. For others, that might be Zumba. Pole fitness, Hip Hop Dance, Black Girls Run! (or Black Men Run), Yoga, Pilates, Tango, Boot Camping it, whatever. Being active is supposed to be enjoyable, and most people don’t stick to it because, quite frankly, it isn’t for them. Pleasure is the first part of commitment when it comes to healthy living, so testing out different activities until you find the best one for you has the dual benefit of being fun and helping ensure your ability to commit.’

 

2. Eat Healthier: ‘I know you said you wanted to eat healthier,’ says Kendall. ‘But, if you’re someone who lives that microwave-love-life, and have done so for a long time, then guess what? It might not go down like that. In fact, I can see three major challenges: 1) You have no idea how to cook the things you’ve bought, so they sit in your fridge until they go bad. 2) You have no idea how to store the items you’ve bought, so they go bad quickly and attract flies; and 3) You underestimated how much time and how many resources it took to learn to cook, so you wind up not being able to put the proper amount of energy into learning…thereby feeling like you’ve wasted your money. All three wind up being deterrents to your ultimate goal, and that’s eating better. How can you fix this? Instead of going cold turkey, go lukewarm turkey – commit to learning to cook one new veggie per week or, even better, commit to adding some colourful raw veggies to your dinner every night…Before you know it, you’ll not only be adding more veggies to your nutritional arsenal, but you’ll also be learning new cooking techniques, too!’

 

3. Quit Smoking: Kendall points out that quitting smoking ‘oftentimes falls in the same line as eating better – most people fail at changing their habits on both fronts because they don’t acknowledge how closely linked their habits are to their ability to manage stress. Stress eaters, smokers, and drinkers are a thing, and they have costly repercussions to not only your health, but your wallet. Learning stress coping mechanisms can not only help you identify when you’re reaching for your weapon of mass destruction, but also give you workarounds to help you make the better choice altogether. Books like The Gift of Imperfection can inadvertently help you understand what stresses you out, and the best plan of attack.’

Categories: commit, eat healthier, eat healthy, fitness goals, kendall, learning, quit smoking, quitting smoking, Resolutions, week

How to Improve Your Wellbeing from the Inside Out

We all want to feel good – about ourselves and the world around us – and to be able to get the most from our lives. However, there’s also evidence that a healthy mental wellbeing also aids in your physical health and can help you achieve your goals, be they in your work, relationships or personal life.

 

According to wellness expert Sarah Stewart-Brown, professor of public health at the University of Warwick, when we talk about wellbeing, we mean more than just happiness or mental health. ‘It’s useful to start with the idea that overall wellbeing involves both the mind and the body,’ she says. ‘And we know that physical and mental wellbeing are closely related. Of course, feeling happy is a part of mental wellbeing. But it is far from the whole. There is a deeper kind of wellbeing, which is about living in a way that is good for you and good for others around you.’

 

She explains, ‘Feelings of contentment, enjoyment, confidence and engagement with the world are all a part of mental wellbeing. Self-esteem and self-confidence are, too. So is a feeling that you can do the things you want to do. And so are good relationships, which bring joy to you and those around you. Of course, good mental wellbeing does not mean that you never experience feelings or situations that you find difficult. But it does mean that you feel you have the resilience to cope when times are tougher than usual.’

 

Over the last 20 years, new evidence has emerged about what really causes lasting improvements to your mental wellbeing. Professor Stewart-Brown notes, ‘Some of this evidence comes from observational studies, in which scientists look at the behaviour and wellbeing of certain sections of the population. Other evidence comes from trials in which scientists take a group of people and ask them to change their behaviour or participate in a treatment or other intervention – such as an exercise programme – and then watch what happens to their wellbeing.’ However, they came to discover the secrets, let’s take a look at the proven ways to improve your wellbeing:

 

1. Look at your past: ‘The first thing you can do for your own wellbeing is become curious about it,’ advises Professor Stewart-Brown. ‘Start to think about what you’ve done in the past to promote mental wellbeing, and whether it worked. Then think about new things that you can try. Remember, no one can give wellbeing to you. It’s you who has to take action.’

 

2. Connect with others: To paraphrase John Donne, ‘No person is an island,’ so make time to connect to the people in your life. Spend time developing relationships with your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours, and go out and start new friendships too.

 

3. Exercise: You don’t have to become a fitness freak, but movement is paramount to living a stress-reduced, happier life. Try walking or a sport that gets you involved with new people – the key is to make it an enjoyable part of your life.

 

4. Learn: Much in the same way that children shine when they learn new things and get praise for it, learning new skills can build your confidence and give you a real sense of achievement and purpose in your personal life. Whether you want to become a DIY expert, music maestro or culinary sensation, find a hobby you’ve always wanted to try and give it a go.

 

5. Give: In the words of Mark Twain, ‘The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up’, and even the smallest act can do it. Whether you offer a smile, a thank you or a kind word, or you go big with larger acts like volunteering, giving to others can improve your mental wellbeing and help you build new social networks.

Categories: exercise, giving, learning, life, life nbsp, mental, mental wellbeing, nbsp, Personal Life, professor stewart, stewart brown, Wellbeing

Are Your Children Being Affected by the School System?

Parents believe that sending their children to school is the best thing for them, and they’re sent off each morning with the best intentions. They believe that formal education is what children need to become productive and happy in adulthood. But is this really the case? Conventional wisdom says that more money and a more challenging curriculum, along with better teachers, would solve the issues in public schools at the moment. But what if the real problem is the school itself? The fact many people may not be accepting is that school as an institution is failing children today, and society as a result.

Children are required to be in school and as a result of that, their freedom is greatly restricted – far more, in most cases, than most adults would tolerate in their workplaces. In recent decades, adults have been compelling children to spend even more time in a school setting, and there’s now been evidence to prove that it’s damaging many children psychologically. Children naturally learn better in conditions outside of those such as school, where they can learn with more enthusiasm and on a deeper level. Compulsory education has become a fixture of our culture for several generations, and more and more people are attaching to the concept of longer school days and years. People assume that the way schools are developed now has emerged from scientific evidence of how children learn, but this isn’t the case.

 

Schools are more a product of history than research, and the blueprint for them was developed during the Protestant Reformation, when schools were created to teach children how to read the Bible without questioning it, and to teach them to automatically obey authority without questioning it. But when these schools were taken over by the government, and as a result made compulsory, the basic structure never changes and the methods of teaching remained unchanged. The teach and test method is spurred on by a system of rewards and punishments, rather than by a real desire to know about the subject in question, and this isn’t the best way to learn – certainly not in children who should have more enthusiasm to learn on a deeper level. We need only look to some of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs and innovators, many of which left school early or said they never enjoyed it, from Edison to Einstein, to see that children learn in different ways. One size fits all-teaching doesn’t help the majority of students find their passion in life.

 

As a society, we tend to ignore findings such as these, and yet we’re not surprised that children are unhappy in schools. Much research has gone into this sort of subject and a lot of that has come back to show that people of all ages learn best when they’re self-motivated and are looking into answers of questions they themselves have a yearning to know. Learning in such a way is joyful, not forced. This is proven in early age, when children grown through their own efforts to learn to speak, jump and run, through their own desire to learn. Why are schools not encouraging this way of learning more, rather than forcing them to learn about things they have no desire for?In order to make children as happy as they can be, without hindering their learning ability, schools need to latch on to what children enjoy and how they learn, rather than using the system that’s been in place for so long out of nothing more than habit.

Categories: Children, children learn, deeper level, learn, learning, people, School, Schools

Could Non-Verbal Clues Improve Child Vocabularies?

Research from the University of Chicago has shown that the clues parents give toddlers about words could help to improve how thorough their vocabulary development becomes when they enter school. This means using words to reference objects in the visual environment which could help young children to learn new words and develop a better understanding of what those words mean. The research also develops the interactions between parents and children when they’re learning to speak. For example, such a reference may be “There goes the zebra” while visiting the zoo benefits the child’s vocabulary more than saying “Let’s go to see the zebra”.

 

The differences in the quality of parents’ non-verbal clues to toddlers, by referencing what a child can see over what is happening later on, explains 22 percent of the differences in those same children’s vocabularies when they enter school. The results of the study have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A child’s vocabulary can vary greatly when they reach school age and start interacting with other children their age – because pre-school vocabularies are a predictor of subsequent school success, this variability is hugely important and its sources must be understood. Researchers have found that the number of words a child hears can have a great impact on their vocabulary later in life, so parents with a higher socioeconomic status (those with higher earnings and more education) will typically talk more to their children, and lead to a more in-depth vocabulary and understanding of words.

 

Though researchers didn’t note any differences in the quality of the interactions based on the parents’ backgrounds, there was a significant difference in the parents who were studied. For example, some parents only provided non-verbal clues around 5 percent of the time, while others provided them up to 38 percent of the time. This impacts the children’s learning greatly. The more a child can hear and learn about in the early stages of their development the better, as this will impact their learning abilities later in life.

Categories: Children, learning, words