A Guide To Girls

Rapid and significant growth and changes—physical, neurodevelopmental, psychological, behavioral, emotional, and social—occur during the many stages of adolescence.

At GPS, we know that in order to best educate and guide girls through these formative years, we have to know girls—their motivations, development, experience—and then use that knowledge to not only establish curriculum and programs designed for how they learn best, but also provide an environment and culture that best nurture them.

These years are a time of incredible growth; the only other time in a child’s life when they changed this rapidly was between birth and age two.

—PHYLLIS L. FAGELL, MIDDLE SCHOOL MATTERS

Girls + Confidence

According to the 2018 Ypulse Confidence Code poll, girls’ confidence levels drop by 30% between the ages of 8 and 14.

The most commonly reported reasons for this are related to physical changes and body image concerns girls experience during this time. However, girls’ self-esteem and confidence are related to not only their physical appearance, but also their internal perception of themselves and their abilities.

MORE FROM THE POLL:

» There is virtually no difference in confidence between boys and girls until age 12. After that, a confidence gap opens and doesn’t close through adolescence. At age 14, boys’ confidence is 27% higher than girls’.

» Between their tween and teen years, girls’ confidence that other people like them falls from 71% to 38%.

» More than half of teen girls feel pressure to be perfect.

» 3 in 4 teen girls worry about failing.

» Between ages 12 and 13, the percentage of girls who say they’re not allowed to fail increases by 150%.

» Nearly 8 in 10 girls want to feel more confident in themselves.

Source: Claire Shipman & Katty Kay, authors of The Confidence Code for Girls, YPulse, 2018

What We Know About Girls

» Early maturation

» Early development of verbal skills

» Highly relational

» More emotionally and socially perceptive and expressive than boys

» Explain and experience failure differently than boys

» Experience a significant drop in confidence during adolescence

How Girls Learn Best

» Effectiveness of small-group work, more so than for boys

» Forming relationships with peers and teachers

» Face-to-face interaction

» Focus on people and relationships

» Personally connecting with content, finding relevance and meaning

What Girls Need To Thrive

» Safe, comfortable, and supportive environment where they can begin to discover their interests, passions, and form their identity

» Intentional nurturing to develop, increase, and keep confidence

» An environment that fosters a growth mindset

The All-Girl Environment

In the all-girl classroom, girls feel safe to explore new topics, take risks, fail, and recover. The essential support structure girls need for healthy exploration—both in their educational pursuits and their socialization—comes in the type of environment that GPS provides, one that is simultaneously challenging and reassuring.

In Boys & Girls Learn Differently: A Guide for Teachers and Parents, Michael Gurian offers important insight into how schools such as GPS can help girls develop a different perspective on their abilities and achievement. “Single-sex options are, therefore, good ones. The psychosocial stresses are removed, to a great extent, from the learning process. As girls work with girls at this very difficult and vulnerable time, self-confidence can increase along with academic performance; girls, together, without hindrance from boys, learn to manage their own and each other’s transformations.”

There was a strikingly different quality to the atmosphere, character, and climate of the all-female class. The learning community that emerged was characterized by a profound sense of responsibility for learning, a special rapport between and among the teacher and the students, a spirit of co-learning, with both the teacher and the students feeling free to ask questions, admit mistakes, take risks, express confusion.

—PSYCHOLOGISTJOANNDEAK, PH.D., HOW GIRLS THRIVE: AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS AND PARENTS