For Aeryl -middle school musings

Aeryl has a sprogglette heading off to middle school next year and wants smart advice on the pros/cons of an all girls middle school for her spawn. 

i think an all girl school would be rad for middle school, the years of first bras and periods and pimples. So much nicer to do that in an environment where your bra isn't getting snapped on a daily basis and the tampons in your purse are fodder for some nightmarish game of cafeteria football should some dude get his hands on them. 

But I went to a coed ed middle school (actually I went to 3 of them) and consider middle school boys to be evil demon beasts. I am pretty sure that it was the middle school boys who tormented me on the school bus the last half of 8th grade (and by tormented I mean set on me like a pack of wild dogs and forcibly removed my bra, followed me home from the bus stop and terrified me) that made me decide to date only boys who had a car as soon as I hit high school. It was easier to fend off one handsy boyfriend than a pack of rape douchebags. There was also the rounds of competing with the boys in math for one of the coveted ap math spots. My test scores were better than most of the theirs, but I got offered a high school spanish class in lieu of the math spot.growl.


But would Aeryl's young sprogglette miss out on "normal' stuff if she is in a single sex school? There will still be all the normal, awkward weirdness that goes with middle school, but minus the sexual harassment and gender preference. I am of the opnion that the longer we keep girls from experiencing those things, the stronger they are at dealing with them later because they aren't "normal" to that girl and she's better able to see it as a crock of shit. Funny thing that, treating girls like full human beings makes it easier for them to recognize when someone isn't treating them like a full human being.


Of course someone who went to an all girls school should fill in here. Maybe I am missing something, having no experience with it. Maybe all girls schools are actually just home ec classes and lessons on make up application for all I know.  Maybe I was extra traumatized by those awful middle school boys (and a seriously less than useful parental unit, whose response was to do nothing but yell at me for letting those boys near her house). 

(Off topic, but Aeryl aren't you local? If you are, you should email me and come meet me for my birthday on the 19th. Actually any local readers who are not stalkers or trolls should email me if they want to meet up for birthday drinks. It is also the birthday of this here blog, 5 official years of bitchy bitchtasticness).