Because this topic has not already been discussed endlessly (including the publication of several books on the issue), recent news articles report that young men in state schools in the UK are not doing as well as their female counterparts. As the Press Association notes, the Department for Education has released the results of recent examinations, which show that over 25% of seven-year-old boys do not meet the literacy levels expected for their age group. This, compared to 13% of substandard results from girls of similar age. The BBC adds that “almost a third of children receiving free school meals failed to meet the standard expected in literacy.”
However, the problem is not limited to England: Across the pond, the New York Post reports that 9% of black boys in the 8th grade (about 13 years of age) who attend inner-city public schools are “proficient readers,” compared with 13% of white boys in similar schools. While the appalling state of the American public education system is another matter entirely, the divide amongst the sexes is apparent there, too: As the Post reports, “A gender gap favoring girls – visible in the fourth grade – grows worse with each passing year.” This divide, however, is often minimized by singe-sex classrooms, such as those found in many boarding schools and, as we commented, in some public schools, as well.
Catholic boarding schools 