SOURCE: Karmel, Miriam. “Save the Males: It's Boys, Not Girls, Who Are Struggling in School.” Utne Reader 102 (November-December 2000): 28, 30.

In the following review of The War against Boys, Karmel discusses various aspects of Sommers's arguments about gender and the American education system.

When a male student at Scarsdale (New York) High School told teachers attending a gender-equity meeting three years ago that girls do better than boys in the classroom, teachers were incredulous. Weren't they gathered to discuss how girls are shortchanged in the classroom? But when some of the teachers later looked at grading patterns, they found that the student was right: While boys and girls in advanced-placement social studies classes got about the same grades, in standard classes, girls outsmarted boys. Still, not everyone was convinced.

Christina Hoff Sommers tells the Scarsdale story in The Atlantic Monthly (May 2000) to prove a point: Teachers simply won't believe that...