Where Girls Come First: The Rise, Fall, and Surprising Revival of Girls' Schools - Hardcover

Ilana DeBare

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585422894 ISBN 13: 9781585422890

Publisher: Tarcher, 2004

Synopsis

A history of the phenomenon of girls' school in America is accompanied by the author's personal account of building a school that celebrates the benefits of single-sex education, an insightful overview of the modern-day debate over single-sex education, profiles of girls' school across the country, and interviews with alumnae about their experiences.

About this title

About the Author

Ilana DeBare helped found the Julia Morgan School for Girls in Oakland, California. She was also a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and The Sacramento Bee.

Reviews

Journalist DeBare offers a combination general history of girls' schools in America and the particular history of cofounding an all-girls middle school in Oakland, Calif. Beginning with the early 19th century, "when educating women was a gutsy act," DeBare traces the evolution of girls' schools from middle-class to elite institutions, with particular attention to Emma Willard (a prominent early- and midâ€"19th-century advocate of girls' education) and to Clara Spence, Lucy Madeira and Miss Sarah Porter (founders of eponymous schools). She also covers public, Catholic and African-American girls' schools, finding similarities and differences. The historical account gives way to a psychological and sociological report, as DeBare treats psychologists Richard Kraft-Ebbing and Havelock Ellis, who cast "a shadow over the kinds of romantic female relationships that had been accepted as normal through most of the 1800s." Then there's groundbreaking Carol Gilligan and Myra and David Sadker, along with AAUW (American Association of University Women) studies that would "ultimately change the entire image and mission of girls' schools" by teaching educators about girls' psychological development and unearthing sex discrimination in coed schools. By the end of the 1990s, girls' schools, which two decades earlier had "seemed headed for extinction," were enjoying a revival, DeBare notes. Although what's best for girls continues to be controversial, DeBare presents a workmanlike but cogent history of how single-sex schools have survived and thrived. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This timely overview of the history of girls' schools in the U.S. coincides with the recent resurgence in the popularity of single-sex education. The author, one of the founders of the Julia Morgan School for Girls in Oakland, California, takes a fascinating glance backward, recounting the lives and times of the revolutionary educators--male and female alike--who labored long and hard to establish educational opportunities for women. Interestingly enough, though most girls' schools began as daring nineteenth-century experiments, many eventually atrophied into glorified finishing schools in the staid 1950s or were branded as outdated or irrelevant in the radical 1960s. Though they seemed to die a natural death, recent studies have suggested that single-sex schools enhance confidence and empower young women to assume leadership positions in all areas of professional and personal life. Given the fact that interest in this subject is booming, there will be an eager audience for this enlightening retrospective on a hot contemporary topic. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Tarcher
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1585422894
• ISBN 13: 9781585422890
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400