Yes, I anticipated some of these reasons, because I've heard them and I believe there's much truth in it. It is hair-tearing, is it not, that both systems have their weaknesses and are criticized as though one was "right" and the other was "wrong," depending on how you see it?

I wish this were not so. I wish that dividing children on the basis of gender for their education was as ludicrous as dividing them on the basis of height or eye color or what have you--that gender did not matter. But it isn't ludicrous; it isn't simple. The saying goes, treating people equally does not mean treating them identically, and gender is one of those factors where educational needs may indeed be different.