In some Communities, they are having a stormy time pretending not to renew the concerts to the centers of Education differentiated. Although the regional governors prefer to call them schools that segregate by sex... Segregate? It sounds strident, abrupt; at least, provocative. On the fly I thought of tennis -and almost all sports-, where two circuits coexist: one male and one female; women and men separately. Does it also segregate? Why don't feminists protest? And politicians? Nobody questions it for obvious reasons: the different physical conditions of the girls and the boys, which in no way diminishes or hinders equality. It's as simple as that...

For the differentiated teaching is based on a fact of the same rank, evident and unquestionable: the unequal growth rate between girls and boys. Unquestionable! However, in this case, the objective data are avoided, and ideological, political and partisan assumptions are used. It smells more like politicking than relevant educational issues. I will try to argue it:

First. The defenders of the differentiated Education never confront the supporters of the mixed teaching , nor question it. Their attitude is not to choose between the bad and the good, but between the good and the best. This restraint against those who attack you shows, at least, an elegant approach.

Second. The purpose of the differentiated Education is to reach a greater adequacy and educational effectiveness, based on the verifiable and proven fact of the different rhythm of the development between girls and boys, from the second childhood (6/7 years old) to the development of the personality (at the end of adolescence). Psychology has always maintained that girls are two years ahead of boys in the process of development, both in growth (physical) and in the maturing facets (psychosomatic). This is a commonly observed fact, confirmed by any parent or educator with some experience. This is the basic reason for the differentiated Education : to harmonize the teaching to the different rhythms of development, in order to optimize learning performance and training. It is therefore based on a pedagogical and psychological issue.

Third. Identical contents, subjects, objectives, skills, abilities... are taught; in final, the official curriculum: equality in the project educational .

Fourth. The centers do not hide their condition and are officially recognized and protected by current legislation. Recall, for example, the ruling of the Supreme Court (2012) that equates coeducation and differentiated Education before the law.

Fifth. These schools offer, with transparency, their model educational and it is the parents who choose it freely for their children. It is not imposed on anyone; on the contrary, it is usually a calm and considered decision because, generally, it even affects the family Economics ... Therefore, denying the agreement does not mean punishing the centers, but preventing the fundamental right of parents to choose the Education of their children. It is worth remembering article 26 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights: "parents shall have a prior right to choose the subject of Education to be given to their children". In other words, accepting the differentiated Education on an equal footing with coeducation would not be an exercise of tolerance, but of democratic health.

Sixth. And socialization is in no way harmed, nor is it detached from the social context. It is normal for people to form groups according to common interests, tastes, objectives, aims, hobbies...: from a gastronomic society to professional associations, sports or cultural associations, folkloric groups, popular choirs, gangs of friends... By joining together in their groups of belonging, these people are not segregated from the social fabric; on the contrary, they are grafted into the community precisely from their group of affines. Moreover, in everyday life we share different groups that make up the arc of social relations: the family, the work, the study center, political parties or trade unions, sports clubs, social gatherings, places of leisure... The set of these psychogroups and sociogroups forms a sufficient space for the full deployment of sociability.

Seventh. Another test of its pedagogical purpose : those institutions of model that offer the complete cycle educational , resort to the mixed Education in infants and in the university or in the higher modules of training professional, because it is assumed that the process of development has already been completed. Therefore, venturing other veiled reasons may reveal previous prejudices.

So much for the argument, which was intended to lighten the controversy by situating it at its level educational. But when I reviewed the previous lines, I was overcome by a morrocotuda disillusionment, an impotent disenchantment. I remembered those verses of Machado, Don Manuel: "But do not look for dissonances because in the end nothing dissonates; they always dance to the sound they play... As long as this dialectic belongs to the terrain of political correctness, as long as it adds votes... popular flags will be raised, old misgivings, sounding crutches..., and the technical supports will be cornered in the field of dissonances...".