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Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong once famously declared that "women hold up half the heavens". The way I see it, men only appear to hold up their half, and the weaker sex is anything but.

Experience in a mixed school serves only to strengthen this notion. I have observed that when class committees are composed of, say, a male chairperson and a female vice-chair, the latter ends up doing all the work while the former is more than content to sit back and allow his female compatriot free reign. It is a very tiny, fairly insignificant example, but quite a microcosm of the stereotypical strong female and meek male partnership. But it isn't just them, of course. I am more than certain that all males who read this will be more than content to sit back and leave decisions to female colleagues/friends/relatives/etc. I personally certainly am.

Teaching in an all-male school, I suspect, would be much easier but also probably far less interesting. Male students, as you all might know, you can do anything to them. You can pick them up by the scruff of the neck and hurl them out of class and they'll return later in the day still smiling sheepishly none the worse for wear. Aside from the fact that physical contact with female students is a very strict no-no, for obvious reasons, one cannot do this to female students. They are built differently. Female students can hate you forever over just one relatively mild reprimand. It is a difference acknowledged by teacher-training programmes and by very experienced educators. Always be more careful about female students, is the advice I have received, and I have found it to be true. They are a lot likelier to take things to heart and to hold grudges, so quite a bit more caution is needed there.

On the flip side, female students are a lot more responsible. They hand up their work on time, virtually every time, and hand it up at the earliest opportunity if they have valid reasons for missing deadlines. Male students will happily leave assignments undone until the very last second your patience expires. If not prodded, they will happily leave assignments undone for all eternity. The overwhelming majority of my notorious lazybones are male. It's better that way though, because I can really give them hell.

Anyway, a mix of gender makes things a lot more colourful. While girls are more volatile and can dislike you a lot more easily, they also warm to you a lot more easily. The male students tend to be rather quieter, rather less attuned to their surroundings and a lot more easygoing. Taking the good with the bad, that's the only way.

Disclaimer: Above post was not meant to be sexist in any way. I am only making general observations. There are exceptions to the rule. There will always be exceptions to the rule.