Debunking (and Confirming) Myths About Same-sex Schools

If you asked me to describe my schooling experience up to the tenth grade in one word, it would be “turbulent.” All my life, I’d just get muffled giggles in response to the fact that I went to an all-girls’ school. Though the school did have a certain charm, after spending 13 years as a part of a student fraternity saturated with estrogen, I can confidently say that the experience drained me (mentally and physically, since my school was abnormally sports-oriented).

Stocked with mindless assumptions, social politics, and clique culture, school was a bit of an extended nightmare, but I loved it nonetheless... I think.

Subconsciously, a lot of people have a notion that girls from schools like mine are ‘boy-crazy’ airheads straight out of Grease. You see, there’s an expectation from students who are a product of same-sex schools to be asociable and incompetent at interacting with members of the opposite sex. While that may be true for some, the extent of its applicability is severely exaggerated. Teens are bound to be socially awkward in certain situations and that is definitely not exclusive to those who come from all-girls’ schools. You’d be lying if you said you haven’t severely embarrassed yourself in front of your crush and had that incident play on your mind for years after it happened.

Another perspective that I’ve heard often is that drama oozes out in bundles from such schools. That too, I’m afraid, is not always true—but it may be, depending on the kind of people you surround yourself with. Even the drama that does exist is so incredibly petty that I genuinely cringe when I look back at the things I would fret over. Harmless gossip would be amplified to the point where we would be ready to press defamation charges on one another. Days of silence and avoidance would end in a sob fest between the two sparring partners claiming that they were best friends all along. In the end, we did resolve our differences, but never once did we spare the drama.

Getting singled out in a female-dominated environment was not uncommon either. Everyone constantly tried to outdo each other and it soon became hard to tell who you could rely on and who you couldn’t. Tons of internalised misogyny and the “I’m not like other girls” epidemic swept over our entire school.

Very frequently, in fact, we were left questioning whether we really even belonged to this community. We weren’t a part of a tight, cult-like sisterhood that you’d expect to see in a same-sex school; it was a school just like any other.

Now that I’ve gotten a taste of co-educational school life, albeit online, I can tell you with surety that it's not all that different. In fact, it comes with additional problems because of the added layer of social dynamics.

In essence, I did not go to a convent, I am not constantly evaluating how to communicate with boys, and I am not going to create drama as a coping mechanism to avoid my own social trauma. So, there you have it! That—in true “girls’ school” speech—is the ‘tea’ on same-sex schools.

---

Written by Anoushka Ichpanani

Designed by Vrinda Gianchandani

Images taken from Wix and Unsplash