Yesterday I got an article in my Google reader feeds about the benefits of having both boys and girls in the classroom. .

I have to admit that I never thought about having boys and girls learning together in the classroom before coming here, it was just natural. Other than occasional news articles about boys being favored in math and science classes, it just wasn’t something that crossed my mind, even as a student.

Korea, of course, tends to change how you think about things.

Last year my second grade middle school students sat boy/girl/boy/girl at their circular tables. There was a lot of fighting. Boy/girl relationships are complicated in Korea. I really don’t understand the dynamic at all. It’s just not at all natural for students to make friends with the opposite gender and a lot of time they resent having to be with them at all.

A lot of middle schools and high schools in Korea separate the boys and the girls. Sometimes the whole school for just one gender. I think it might be to reduce the distraction and tension the students feel from having to deal with the other gender. I’m not sure how well it works, but I have to admit that many times last year I wished my school had separated the boys and the girls.

I remember that when I was that age I was thrilled to spend time with boys, or maybe just the boys I had a crush on. It’s all a little fuzzy now. I certainly didn’t act as though they had cooties and I had several guy friends.

As adults, Koreans generally don’t have close friends of the opposite gender. This means that everyone always assumes that my close male friends must be my boyfriend since there really isn’t another alternative explanation in Korean society.

This is one of those cultural differences that I wasn’t really aware of before coming to Korea.

It occurs to me that this study might not have come to the same conclusions if it were held in a Korean classroom and Korean society. I wonder what results it would come up with?