Sister Bear,
There are a lot of differing opinions regarding what kind of mechitzah is required for tefillah. Follow the minhag of your local shul.
Gavram
You say, “It would just not work today, not with our children.” What is wrong with the education that has been provided to our children that what worked fine a generation ago does not work today? Orthodoxy is today MORE isolationist and MORE separated from the general secular culture than it has ever been in America. (And don’t tell me that the general secular culture is worse today than a generation ago. The teen birth rate in America peaked in 1957. There was plenty of licentiousness back then; people just weren’t as open about it.)
Moq wrote,
“And Gedolei Yisroel clearly and unambigously are 100% opposed to mixed seating at a wedding. “
Rav Aharon Kotler z’tz’l, Rav Moshe Feinstein z’tz’l, Rav Yaakov Kamenitzky z’tz’l, and Rav Yosef Soloveitchik z’tz’l all attended mixed seating weddings.
“Far worse can and does happen. Open your eyes! Look around.”
Indeed. I look around and see more unmarried frum people than at any time in history.