The big difference is that British educators and politicians are ten years ahead of Americans in confronting and specifically addressing the problem of male underachievement. Its explicit purpose is to help boys catch up with the girls. The British are also experimenting with all-male classes in coed public schools. They are again allowing gender stereotypes in their educational materials. They have found that boys enjoy and will read adventure stories with male heroes.
War poetry is back.
So is classroom competition. The plight of Britain s schoolboys was an issue in the 1997 election. The climate for American boys is unfriend ly. The mood in the United States is contentious and ideological, and shaped by the girl advocates. In the war against boys, as in all wars, the first casuality is truth.