My daughter caught a train recently in Sydney and was sitting behind some boys from a private school. I won’t say which school, but these young men of 16 or 17 were engaging in some braggadocio, talking about girls they knew in derogatory, misogynistic terms, loudly proclaiming which girl they had had sex with and who was still on the menu, so to speak. My daughter was listening because she knew one of the girls, and was about to give them a piece of her mind before they got up and left the train.

Guy NobleGuy Noble

My daughter couldn’t quite believe these were the young men of tomorrow. I’m sure in the classroom and at school functions they were delightful and sensitive individuals, but put them in a group and they became a wolf pack, a toxic testosterone brew of masculinity. I do wonder whether the time for single sex schools is over. Whatever perceived educational benefits there may be in keeping the sexes separate is undone by that very exclusion. How will boys get to understand that women are a part of the world, that they...