Quote:
Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
I haven't found any of this to be true. Not even a little bit.
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Want to clue us in on whether you find the opposites to be true, or are you saying there's no correlation at all?
It has been my observation especially that women attending same-sex high schools remain friends for life disproportionately to those attending other schools.* I think public schools have more diverse populations. My wife, for example, had only three or so people in her public H.S. who were her intellectual equals and who challenged her in positive ways. She's still friendly with one of them; the others, and the rest of her school, are all in the "I haven't though of
him in fifteen years" file. This is not my sole basis for the thesis, but I'll guess it's consonant with the experiences of other high-achieving people on this board. Catholic and private schools are more like Hogwart's --- you often have a circle of friends that includes the smart one, the athletic one, the dim-but-loyal one, etc.**
My anecdotal evidence for all-male schooling is slightly weaker, but I think that's because male-male friendship is less often of the get-together-regularly-and-discuss-feelings-and-life-developments variety. Friendships between women have very subtle nuances, but it's very evidence of friendships between men that is subtle. Women are likely to look at many male friendships and say "that's not really a friendship" because male friendships can be a fallow field much longer, IMHO. I can pick up the phone and have a connection with someone I haven't seen in ten years. An observant woman might say I'm
re-establishing the friendship; I don't see it that way.***
In a special clue to TM and NFH, you can't disprove an observation based on anecdotal evidence by merely by offering contrary anecdotal evidence, when the thesis was carefully qualified by the words "generally" or "usually," as mine was. I was hoping the post would spark some discussion more extensive than "You're dead wrong. Period." I don't need to be right, but I'd rather be proved wrong than merely told so.
*It's probably the pillow fights and oral pleasuring.
**I'm sure your lunch table at school had this, too. Are you still friends with the dim-but-loyal one? I am.
***Like all statements beginning with "men" or "women," this is not intended to be a grand unifying theory applicable to all.
