Erick Bertn Ortega Polito Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Boys and girls should attend separate schools. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.Trying to keep old traditions in educationWhen I was a little student I considered natural to share a classroom with boys and girls. My teachers belonged to male or female gender. School mirrored the real life and how people interact. However, not all the students have the same experience because they attend schools exclusively for boys or girls. In what follows I shall provide three reasons for rejecting this situation. First of all, if we separate boys and girls in the schools, we discriminate them because of their gender. Boys and girls will probably acquire the belief that this kind of discrimination can be justified. An advocate could argue that substantive differences between boys and girls justify his/her position. For example, girls develop sexually earlier than boys, so they have different cognitive necessities. Nevertheless, I find difficult to accept these arguments without falling in an unjustifiable discrimination. Secondly, schools should be a preparation for adult life. In real life both women and men work together, take important decisions, and see each other every day. Then boys and girls could have this preparation if they are not separated and learn to share a space together. Moreover, children incorporate social skills that involve cooperation and toleration. Many decades ago women began to fight for their right to be educated and be treated as equal to men. Thus school should reflect our achievements as human beings. Thirdly, children from mixed schools not only develop socially better, but also learn better. For instance, every child has many doubts concerning his/her environment because it offers stimuli. Part of the learning constitutes answering these doubts. An environment that includes female and male classmates is richer than one with only boys or girls. A radical traditionalist could still believe that separation benefits the learning process of children as it was thought before. But we do not live those times anymore. Finally, I expect that these reasons convince anyone that boys and girls should not attend separate schools. Dividing genders means discrimination, a distortion of real life and an obstacle for developing social and learning skills. Though during many years people maintained these ideas, we must value them as wrong. A cumbersome old tradition has to be abandoned for the utility of everyone.