The big vacation that burst into our lives with a bang also brings with it preparations for the new school year, and how surprised I was to hear that a certain high school in Emek Hefer, a high school where, like most high schools, boys and girls study together in a class, is planning for next year with complete separation between boys and girls.
""Studying together harms and weakens girls," claims the esteemed principal, who wants to separate boys from girls. "Girls are uncomfortable in the learning environment created by boys. The boys are too jumpy, dominate the classroom conversation, and the girls feel pushed aside. Our plan is to empower the girls and calm the boys.".
True, he qualifies his words and claims that he is talking about a very limited and narrow niche, that he is talking about high sects, about studying for 5 matriculation units, about mathematics in general, but look at this wonder, suddenly we begin to understand that separate sects are not just the exclusion of someone, a return to the Middle Ages, a narrow-mindedness and stupidity, but perhaps also something logical, enlightened and explainable.
""But in this way we will end up behaving like Haredim" – the interviewers of that director were rightly alarmed. They seemed to be saying: "All day long we are careful not to get close to the Haredim's leadership and constitutions and here, without realizing it, we are getting close, and even drawing their teachings from them and imitating them... Maybe tomorrow we will also operate separate bus rides for men and women? Maybe we will suddenly see only men in the army? Maybe we will also approve women's services in the synagogue? Maybe in the long run we will stop hearing women's singing? Who knows what else we will end up with if we start separating boys from girls in our schools...
This issue of gender segregation comes up from time to time in society in general and gains momentum every year, but the principals who resort to this segregation do so as if they were being held captive. They fear for their skin and are terrified of being pointed at and said: "Here is the principal who dared to go against the flow and strive to be like one of the haredim from the women's dormitories." And because they are afraid, they say it half-heartedly and immediately add: "We didn't intend to do this in all subjects, not at all hours, not during breaks, not in the afternoon, just...""
The truth is, in various countries this separation has existed for a long time. In the US, in particular, in prestigious private schools, boys and girls study separately. They came to the conclusion that the atmosphere in boys' and girls' classes should be different. Boys are more competitive, full of energy and lively, girls like interpersonal relationships, studying together, communicating with each other while studying, and they are more relaxed. They also understood that mixed seating causes children's minds to be preoccupied with other matters besides the lessons, and all of this led them to understand that separation would bring out the best in the children. Why not do it? Why force it to be spoiled?
With us, it will take time. In a country where, whenever the media gets bored, it finds itself dealing with an ultra-Orthodox man who didn't stand up for a woman on the bus, or a weirdo who spat on the floor at the sight of a woman walking past him, in such a country, it won't be easy for administrators to admit that the ultra-Orthodox system works. They will begin to understand this slowly while the other administrators look at them with puzzled eyes, but it will happen, just as they have already begun to understand that the method of teaching reading in the rabbis works and that the method of standing up in front of a teacher works. It will take time, but the buds are already here.
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