Weighing up the pros and cons of coeducation can prove a challenge for parents when choosing a school for their child.
Tim Kotzur, Head of College, St Peters Lutheran College, makes three important observations why parents should consider coeducation.
1. Succeeding together
In co-educational schools, girls and boys work collaboratively, exchange ideas and debate issues. Importantly, the presence of both genders adds to the richness and diversity of thinking and learning that fills all classrooms. By learning to work and play together, girls and boys discover how they can succeed together.
2. Mirroring real life
Co-education helps to break down gender misconceptions and provides an excellent foundation for the development of realistic, meaningful and lasting relationships in later life. It also introduces students to both male and female role models, and leaves them with a wider, more diverse network of friends.
Outside of the classroom, girls and boys stand side-by-side in leadership positions, co-curricular activities and outdoor education camps. At St Peters, our young people like the fact that they are learning side by side with each other.
3. Embracing gender diversity
Research around teaching and learning styles suggest that there is as much diversity within genders as there is between them. Therefore, good teaching and learning strategies do not need to differ between genders and prove equally beneficial for both girls and boys.
In a coeducational setting, girls and boys have the opportunity to interact with each other as equals in all aspects of everyday life. In doing so, they build a sound platform for:
- personal growth;
- peer connectedness;
- relationships with other people; and
- the development of appropriate value systems.
By learning to live and work together, a co-educational school life best prepares a young person for much that lies ahead of them.
Tim Kotzur
Head of College
St Peters Lutheran College