Boy‐only classrooms: gender reform in Windsor, Ontario 1966–1972

Abstract

From 1966 to 1972, Flintridge Elementary school located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada implemented a short lived gender reform plan to help raise boys’ achievement. Shaped by a variety of complex historical factors and fuelled by a desire for innovation, educators from Flintridge Elementary sought to address the educational needs of primary school boys by establishing single‐sex classrooms, hiring more male teachers, and developing a more “masculinised” curriculum. Drawing on articles from the popular media, scholarly journals, annual school board reports, and face‐to‐face interviews with 10 educators directly involved in the gender reform, this small scale study reveals the potential difficulties and consequences that arise when boy‐only settings are implemented in schools as a way to address the educational needs of boys. This suggests the need for today’s educators to move beyond outdated, simplistic approaches such as boy‐only arrangements in addressing the educational needs of boys, in order to help boys not only achieve academically but, more broadly, to lead more fulfilling and just lives.

Keywords:

• gender
• boys
• masculinities
• history