The vision for our academy is to have all of the classrooms single sex and to have as much of the daytime experience be separated as possible. However, for practical and financial reasons, for at least the next two school years, many of the classrooms will be coed.
Why does the academy strive to provide single sex classrooms? What's wrong with coed?
Single-sex schools enable teachers to tailor their instruction specifically to how boys and girls learn best, optimizing academic performance. By removing the social distraction of the opposite sex, students can focus entirely on their intellectual development without the pressure to perform for peers. This environment allows for a deep engagement with the liberal arts, fostering a love for learning that goes beyond the classroom. As a result, students often participate more freely in discussions and take greater academic risks. This specialized approach creates a focused atmosphere where scholastic achievement is the priority.
How do you prioritize which offerings will be male vs female classrooms?
There has been enormous amounts of research over the years on what the most effective subjects and classrooms are from an academic perspective. We combine this knowledge with our Catholic understanding of which topics are more important to be able to have discussions amongst our own sex to come to the following priority:
- Theology/Religious instruction
- Physical Education
- Physics
- Rhetoric/Logic/Grammar with Composition
- Biology
- Fine Arts
- Mathematics
- Chemistry/History
How do you determine when to split a course into male vs female offerings?
We evaluate our ability to separate classes based on the following primary factors:
- Enrollment: For the academy to be sustainable, we need the schedule to accommodate for 3 or more students to be in a section in order to have a “full” classroom experience.
- Teaching Capacity: There may be situations where our staff is unable to cover additional sections.
- Physical Space: We are thankful at this time to have such a spacious building and this is rarely the issue with needing a class to be taught coed.
Are all the teachers the same sex as the class they are teaching?
While we will do our best to try to have men teaching the males and women teaching the females, there will be good reasons when this will not make sense.