"Same-sex classes a growing trend in public schools"

Story here. Excerpt:

"'All the girls there, they can talk out of turn," the 14-year-old said. "We get really off task and it's really annoying.'
...
Panos' classmate, Alyson Douglas, 15, said she likes not worrying about boys causing disruptions.

"Guys just make a bigger nuisance in the class," she said.
...
...They include New York City -- where there are nine single-sex public schools -- as well as Chicago, Dallas, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Plans to open same-sex schools have been announced in Miami, Atlanta and Cleveland.

Nationwide, at least 253 public schools offer single-sex classes and 51 schools are entirely single sex...

Critics of same-sex classrooms argue that proven methods of improving education should be pursued instead of one that divides boys and girls. Separating boys and girls is tantamount to "separate but equal" segregation-era classrooms, they say.
...
Enrollment must be voluntary and any children excluded from the class must get a "substantially equal" coed class in the same subject, if not a separate single-sex class.
...
'I would suggest that for many of our kids and families, especially in Milwaukee, it's a question of choice,' Spence said. 'We have an array of choices in Milwaukee and I just think this should be one additional choice.'"

OK, most of you know how I feel about single-sex anything, so I won't beat the drums. I am just going to point out some things:

1. I have yet to see a story that discusses any of these "new" single-sex classrooms made of boys, except to mention perhaps in passing that they are available (word on how many boys are in single-sex classes has yet to be reported). "Voluntary single-sex classrooms" seems like they go down well as long as it's stressed they are classrooms "free of boy-created disruptions," or somesuch misandrist babblings.

2. I find it amusing if not also ironic that in this story, there are two different quotes, both from female students, one complaining about how much the girls in her class are talking out of turn and the other saying she is glad to be free of boys' interruptions. So where is the truth? There isn't one. It all depends on what kind of students you have in class and how good their teachers are at keeping them on track. The sexes of the students has nothing to do with it.

3. So "it's about choice" says one school board member. Funny it isn't about choice when men want to have single-sex anything but instead it's about sexism. Switch the sexes and PRESTO! the whole model gets re-interpreted.