In Maureen Dowd's column...

...today, she writes about the boys at "Landon, an elite private grade school and high school for boys in the wealthy Washington suburb of Montgomery County, Md.," and their attitudes toward girls. Suffice it to say, they're horrible. (I'll let you read it yourself for the details.)

At the end of the piece, Jean Erstling, Landon’s director of communications, is quoted as saying, that “Landon has an extensive ethics and character education program which includes as its key tenets respect and honesty. Civility toward women is definitely part of that education program.”

Ms. Dowd then concludes by saying:

Time for a curriculum overhaul. Young men everywhere must be taught, beyond platitudes, that young women are not prey.

Hard to argue with that, but I wonder if it's really the school's responsibility to teach "civility toward women." I certainly wouldn't object to that; there couldn't possibly be any harm in it. But is that really the problem? Has the school been delinquent in its teaching? I'll bet the problem lies more with the boys' families and their fathers' attitudes toward women. Fundamental values like these are learned at home. By the time these boys arrive at Landon it's probably too late.