ALL-GIRL MATH CLASSES ARE ANOTHER FAD

Sometimes the winds of modern education seem to flow in curious currents. In the high school in Blue Springs, Mo., a Kansas City suburb, the principal is pleased as punch about his "innovative" math classes -- for girls only.

Principal Ted Lewman established the classes based on studies that show girls are more reticent than boys in classroom situations and, therefore, are less likely to benefit from the teacher's attention or to speak up when there are questions.

Girls in the class say the just-girls situation is better, but so far there isn't any indication that they are learning more math. And many a former high school math student can recall that some of the brightest classmates were girls, just as some were boys.

It seems like it would have been a lot easier to use some of Missouri Teacher of the Year Carol Reimann's common sense to train teachers who are eager to meet the needs of all students, regardless of gender, rather than create another fad in modern education.