The Foreign Service Journal, June 2016

100 JUNE 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT nity service, as well as daily interactions with opposite-sex school staff members. Conversely, at girls’ schools, male staff members are often role models, allow- ing for a relatively mature dialog to occur with the opposite gender and facilitating a mentoring relationship. The crucial point is that faculty, staff and families at single-sex schools realize that they are all educating students to succeed in an increasingly diverse and complex world. The overall setting may be single-sex, but the perspective is decidedly not one-dimensional. Single-Sex Education at Post Some Foreign Service parents have already chosen the single-sex education path for their children. Department of State employee Katherine Lawson and her husband Nestor Sainz weighed all of their options carefully before choosing the all-girl San Silvestre School for their daughter Isabella when their family was posted in Lima, Peru. “For me, one of the most important aspects of the all-girl learning environ- ment was that by holding the students to high expectations in all areas—math, science, computers, art, poetry, language and physical education—the school broke down gender stereotypes,” says Katherine “The school seemed to get Isabella’s needs right away and worked with her directly to chart her course of becom- ing an independent lifelong learner. The seeds of independence and confidence sown in those early years are already starting to take root and flourish now that she is a teenager.” Know Your Student Despite the many benefits of single- sex education, educators and researchers agree that not every student will thrive in a single-sex environment. Every student is different. Parents are encouraged to evaluate the talents and needs of their own children to determine if the single- sex setting suits those needs. Foreign Service families looking to discuss the variety of educational options available should contact the Family Liai- son Office Education and Youth team at FLOAskEducation@state.gov. n Continued from page 97