The 'One Girl' Effect

schoolboys 1945
Note the girls are separate 
around the corner

I once taught English classes in a place where the student body would have been almost all-male, had they not offered a "secretarial science" program for the purpose of women attending. Still, I often had classes with no women in them at all, or only one or two. It was a two-year "technical college," the type offering certificates in technical skills such as electronics and repair.

The boys tended to be in their late teens and early twenties, often fresh from high school. Very few did well in English; nor did they work very hard at it. They were there because it was a requirement. There was something particularly boyish about them, and I suspect it was quite a bit like teaching high school.

"Interrupted Courtship"
Tom shows off for One Girl, Becky

I noticed what I call The 'One Girl' Effect. Classes were reasonably well-behaved- until One Girl enrolled in the class. A room of 20 boys, and all it took was One Girl. Suddenly the boys began to show off and disrupt class: laughing loudly in little cliques, asking silly questions or giving silly answers and then guffawing, loud complaints against the subject or the teacher [me], interrupting me or each other, and a steady stream of loud, ridiculous comments that they seemed to think were funny and would impress The Girl. It was like something out of Tom Sawyer.

It was enough to make a really strong case for same-sex education, particularly in high school. More students- particularly boys- would learn more, and teachers would be spared half the grief.

I've never learned whether these show-offs do impress One Girl or not. I hope so, or my suffering was in vain.