Girls only - a student's perspective
Joy Crane
Location: Brighton
Case study: Roedean
My name is Joy Crane. Student, friend, daughter, sister, writer, mathematician, actress, nuisance, and boffin entail some of my attributes. English by blood, Luxembourgish by citizenship and American by current residence, I arrived through the Roedean Gates a year ago as an unusual newcomer having never attended an independent school, let alone an all-girls’ one.
The majority of my state-funded co-educational education had taken place in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the headquarters of Oshkosh B’gosh, a toddler’s apparel store, and the world’s largest producer of wooden crutches. Needless to say, in such an environment I was eager to take a leap of faith into an opportunity which would expose me to an entirely new life, an opportunity I now call Roedean.
Prior to Roedean, my education was infiltrated with that forbidden species: ‘boys’. Although always a dedicated student, preparation and studying was undeniably skewed by hour-long make-up applications, in-class flirting, lessons shared with the boy of the moment, and other petty, yet absorbing distractions which altered the purpose of school. As I matured, I saw my previously studious, female peers controlled by the ventriloquist Eros: math class became a view of Tom’s luscious hair, an F on a physics exam morphed into the key to the rebellious Dick’s heart, and the Annual Science Competition was suddenly out of bounds due to Harry’s sexist remarks. Shielded by the ultimate boy-reflector, braces, I was free from such constricting binds, but was conversely burdened with feelings of permanent rejection, a damaging emotion equally distracting to a 12 year old’s learning.
Now, 16 and brace-free, I can clearly see that attending Roedean has not only been the greatest decision of my academic career, but perhaps that of my entire life. Attending a school which challenges girls to excel beyond the traditional roles of women has ignited a spark of self-confidence which is reflected in mine and my peer’s exam results. The division between schooling and boys has allowed me to view each in a sagacious manner whilst being dominated entirely by neither. After all, boys will come and go, but knowledge is forever
Joy Crane
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