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Machon Sarah High School
Ottawa, Canada

1400 Coldrey Ave., Ottawa K1Z 7P9 *613 729 4172 or 244 9119 (answering machine)


There’s a range of reasons that we (along with many hundreds of Torah schools throughout the Jewish world) insist on maintaining separate schools for boys and girls:

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The social, spiritual and halachic implications of living in a coed environment are significant enough to require, at the very least, serious thought. Here’s an excellent essay on that subject by an anonymous student of a North American Bais Yaakov high school who, along with her friends, gave the issue the consideration it deserved.

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Halacha and tradition require that boys and girls receive distinct curricula within their Judaic studies (see this essay which touches on the subject). Providing separate programs in one school would likely create more problems than it solves.

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Many studies commissioned in the general educational community have discovered marked improvements in both academic and social performance among teenagers educated in gender-segregated environments. For one review of some of the findings, see http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03245/217233.stm.

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Since the very beginning of formal girls’ education, separating boys from girls (especially at the high school level) has been the firm tradition in Orthodox communities. That tradition has been confirmed by halachic responsa at the highest levels (see, for instance, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Igros Moshe Yore Deah II, #102).