Why Girls

ConSoné Academy, Where Middle School Girls Can Develop Their Voice(s)

It's All About the Girls

With regard to "the girls," research has shown that, during middle school years, many students find success more easily when they can learn in a single-sex environment and where appropriate services address girls' special needs and those that put them at risk during these years. These features are often overlooked but fundamental to success. It's a way of eliminating certain distractions and focus on the needs of one gender. At girls' schools:

Girls enjoy not just equal opportunity, but every opportunity. All the speakers, singers, players, writers, and athletes are girls. All the doers and leaders are girls. Female mentors abound, whether faculty or fellow classmates. And, that's the key to real achievement: positive role models, abundant opportunities, personal practice, and real-life experience.

Girls put academics first. Time in the classroom is time spent learning, not socializing. Girls' schools create a culture of achievement where a girl's accomplishments are what matters—where what she believes in and how she puts her beliefs into action are more important than what she wears to school.

Girls dare to take on—and succeed in—the real world. Self-confidence is the key to turning skills and knowledge into success. If you have a healthy self-confidence, you'll be prepared to step outside your comfort zone and take on any workplace or social situation. At girls' schools, every girls learns to take on academic challenges, express her thoughts and opinions, and participate in new learning experiences.

Girls thrive when their learning styles take center stage. Single-sex education is more than merely separating girls and boys. Girls' schools capitalize on all that we know about the way girls learn. As a result, girls school students are more willing to stick with—and succeed in—courses such as math, science, and technology.

Girls become leaders. There's no such thing as a leadership gene. Leadership is an acquired skill. That's why girls schools constantly create new leadership opportunities in the classroom, the science lab, the playing field or the stage—everywhere, in short, where there are valuable life-lessons to be learned.

Girls are first and foremost. It's about making sure girls take center stage, while drawing upon all that we know about the way they grow and learn. It's not just the classroom. It's the combination of the community, the culture, and the climate girls' schools offer that makes all-girl education such a powerful and transformative experience.

There are differences in the best ways to teach girls. An all-girls' school can reach students more comprehensively and intensely with programs specifically tailored to meet girls’ needs. An all girls’ school helps young women develop confidence and academic curiosity necessary for success in college and beyond. Research shows this combination of community, culture, and climate:

How it propels achievement both in school and beyond
How it motivates girls to dare to take on new challenges and stretch themselves both academically and personally
How it instills the qualities necessary for success under any of a broad range of definitions that today's families apply to measure excellence in education

More research:

Traditional teacher training has focused on teaching strategies that reflect boys' interests and behaviors. These strategies are designed to help keep order in classrooms. (www.academic.org)
In a recent survey of girls’ school alumnae, 13% intended to major in math or science— significantly more than females nationally (2%). (Goodman Research Group)
Scientists over the last 25 years have produced numerous studies on the unique ways in which girls learn. These studies revealed a noted difference in brain development by gender.

Just look at some of the amazing women who attended all-girls’ schools, colleges, or universities:

Joanne Holbrook Patton, Owner/Partner, CEO of Green Meadows Farm—alumna of Sweet Briar College

Mary Richardson, Co-Anchor of WCVB-TV's Chronicle, retired—alumna of Mercy Academy in CA
Sophia Coppola, Film Director—alumna of Mills College
Emily Dickinson, Noted American poet—alumna of Mount Holyoke College
Zora Neale Hurston, Author of Their Eyes Were Watching God—alumna of Barnard College
Katharine Hepburn, Actress—alumna of Bryn Mawr College
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author of The Color Purple—alumna of Spellman College & Sarah Lawrence College
Madeleine Albright, First Female Secretary of State—alumna of Wellesley College
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Presidential Candidate and U.S. Secretary of State—alumna of Wellesley College
Nancy Pelosi, First Female Speaker of the House—alumna of Trinity Washington University
Barbara Walters, TV News Personality for 20/20—alumna of Sarah Lawrence College
Diane Sawyer, TV News Co-Anchor for ABC’s Good Morning America—alumna of Wellesley College
Charlotte Fox, First Woman to Climb Mt. Everest—alumna of Hollins University
Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State—alumna of St. Mary’s Academy in CO