Same-Sex Classrooms - Good But Wrong?

Bob Ray Sanders, a columnist, vice president, and associate editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, seldom comes up on the right side of any issue. And on those rare occasions when he does, it's almost invariably for the wrong reason.

When it comes to public schools, I am, like Bob Ray, opposed to segregating boys and girls. I believe that both genders should be taught by the same teachers.....the good ones as well as the bad ones. If the students are segregated, it stands to reason that the teachers will also be segregated.

Bob Ray's rational for opposing gender segregation in schools, on the other hand, is based on the simple concept of segregation, itself, being unfair. Having experienced racial segregation in school when he was growing up, it is understandable that he would be against separating people because of their differences. His argument against same-sex classrooms, however, seems to be contradictory.

"...I'm afraid it may lead to widespread public policy that will do more harm than good. It is a kind of social engineering that someday we are likely to regret."

Like cultural diversification, affirmative action, and any other well-meaning, but misguided, "social engineering" that has been attempted, and in many cases still applied, by government or institutions, perhaps?

Bob Ray goes on to deny his own logic, as liberals often do, by insisting that his experience with segregation was....well, good.

"While I wouldn't give anything for my experience in those all-black schools, with their dedicated and nurturing teachers, the policy of separate-but-equal was wrong then, and it is wrong now."

If you wouldn't want it to have been different, Bob Ray, how can you say it was wrong? Is it because what you often say you want is usually wrong?