I went to an all girls Catholic high school, and I had a great experience. First of all, I chose the school. Not because it was single-sex, but for other reasons which are too long and boring to explain here. I just want you to know it wasn’t my parents who told me I had to go there, nor did I choose it for the lack of boys. The classes that were offered were broad: I was in mainly high honors and AP courses, which included Calculus my last year and AP US History. Because it was Catholic, I also took courses in theology, which of course included the Old and New Testaments, but I took courses on world religions and even a course on meditation.
Yes, my school offered Home Ec., and they did bake cakes and stuff like that, but I wouldn’t say that that class was the most popular. We had an amazing theatre director, and our plays were some of the best high school productions I’ve ever seen (seriously, they were awesome).
As for the single-gender aspect of it, I loved it. We had a “brother” school that was right next door, and occasionally, for certain classes, we would exchange with the brother school. There weren’t many of these classes, and I took two of them. It really didn’t change the dynamic of the classroom much. People still seemed perfectly comfortable with speaking in class, etc. What I liked the most about my school was the fact that for being an all girls school, there were very few cliques. Everyone talked to everyone, and it was a wonderful experience.