In "For boys and girls, go single sex," Rich Lowry looks at some differences in the way boys and girls learn, and from that, extrapolates some of the flaws in our current education system. In doing so, he highlights the reasoning that led to the popularity of single sex high schools a generation ago. This conforms to the common sense test. William and Michael, coming through high school, had trouble reading a book if it did not include action or sports in the first few pages. The more restrained classical literature, or, even more, the books assigned in class, had little interest. Why do we read Romeo and Juliet but not Henry V? If you wanted to pick a Shakespeare play likely to encourage guys to get past the unfamiliar verbiage, you would have trouble picking one more likely to appeal to guys than Henry V. Which is not to say that I am not in favor of assigning classical literature. It is something that high school students should be presented with. I just do not remember the grade school texts well enough to use them as an example.
