No, mousethief - I met enough girls who went to single-sex schools to know that, as far as I could tell, almost all teenage girls were annoying and shallow, or at least presented themselves that way. And it's not just boys who need to learn those skills - girls do to. And as hard as adolescence is, in my case anyway being in a coed school made it easier, not more difficult. Note the bit about having lots of male friends - they helped me through a lot of shit. (For the record, so did my best friend- who was female, and still is. I've known her since I was seven.)

I don't honestly remember boys / girls being as distracting as you are all presenting them as. I honestly imagine that a romanticised notion of what the other sex is or could be like, spawned from not having actual normal interaction with them would be even more distracting. Interaction at arranged social events is generally not to be counted as NORMAL, this I remember clearly.

More of my 2 cents.

-J