Two weeks ago, The Times printed an article about the up-and-coming movement for single-sex education. In the particular situation highlighted, boys and girls attend the same school, but are separated by different classrooms. The article started by relating a couple anecdotal pieces which show the benefits of being able to “tailor to each group.” Michael Napolitano, the boys’ teacher, “speaks to his fifth-grade class […] like a basketball coach.” When teaching his students “how to be a man,” Mr. Napolitano explains, “If I get in the face of a girl, she would just cry […] the boys respond to it, they know it’s part of being a young man.”

Meanwhile, across the hall, Larita Hudson’s classroom runs like a therapy session. Addressing her female students as “honey,” she coaxes, “Remember what I spoke to you about? About being the bright shining star that you are?”

About a week ago, the same newspaper ran a story about the amalgamation of feelings and responses to Chris Brown’s brutal beating of his girlfriend Rihanna, particularly amongst adolescent women. The article highlights some in this demographic justifying the beating, saying that Rihanna must have done something to deserve it. The article featured researchers who argue that teenage girls’ feelings are so fluid that they change all the time. Additionally, Rihanna was already villanized by many teenage girls who were jealous of her relationship with Brown. “Moreover, teenage girls can’t be expected to support Rihanna just because of her gender,” the article cites “youth culture experts” as clarifying.

What do these two articles — one about single-sex education trends, and one about reactions to Rihanna’s beating — have in common?

Well, I reject the notion that females — no matter what the circumstance — cannot be expected to feel ties of female loyalty at a young age. Women are bred to compete with each other from the earliest of times — to be more beautiful, to get more attention, to be cuter (just check out TLC’s Toddlers and Tiaras, one of the grossest and most excessive examples of this on cable television today). But this does not mean that with proper education, we could not be bred to encourage each other, to flex our muscles — intellectual and physical.

And in terms of single-sex education in secondary schools, while I agree that many problems at this incredibly volatile age involve interactions between sexes, I do not understand how separating children based on biological sex (a concept which in and of itself should be questioned) helps anything. This separation inherently involves antiquated stereotypes and thereby perpetuates them. Until administrators push for individual-sensitive learning, we can lump people into any kind of sociological trait category and thereafter decide what is best for them from the top-down. What kind of message does it send to a whole group of students with diverse backgrounds and learning styles when they are spoken to as if they were six years old? Does the school truly believe that females are unable to internalize academic lessons unless they are sugar-coated with pleasantries and sweet nothings?

But I could be convinced on the point of single-sex education being beneficial, if its purpose is to encourage what I described above — intellectual and physical muscle-flexing in women during this time of extraordinarily low self-confidence. However, Ms. Hudson’s baby-talk and Mr. Napolitano’s hyper-macho rhetoric only help to perpetuate the idea that women are the fairer sex. Which brings us to the Rihanna situation.

We must keep Rihanna’s experience in perspective, as it is only one of many much more severe cases that occur annually across the country: For example, see the deadly case of Jana Lynne Mackey or the beheading of Aasiya Hassan, which has shockingly slipped under-the-radar of the most mainstream media. And many other women that survive similar attacks follow a pattern like that of Rihanna’s by returning to their attacker. However, Rihanna’s acquiescence is terrifying because of her idol status to the aforementioned demographic: young and impressionable girls who are now even more accustomed to the idea of automatically — within a month! — forgiving a man who beats you.

Men: This is not to say that beatings don’t occur in the reverse or are any less atrocious when they do. However, Rihanna’s model of forgiving-and-returning has wide implications for her young female fans. And I am afraid that in schools, as the article about the abuse writes, “Teenage girls […] have been taught that ‘what really matters is that we don’t destroy boys.’ [They] think that if they speak out against an abuser, the boy’s future will be shattered.”

We must teach our girls the good intention behind Ms. Hudson’s patronizing tone — that each one is, indeed, a “bright shining star.” But part of being this star means that you don’t take shit from anyone. I’m waiting for that part to be incorporated into any school curriculum — single-sex or otherwise.