Sir, – So, teenage girls do better than boys at exams, but are less fit, while boys are fitter but not so successful at exams ("Getting girls over the finishing line", Health + Family, February 14th). We already know that boys who do less sport (ie "nerds") are the most likely to challenge these gender tropes.
Surely these observations merely reflect the fact that there are a finite number of hours in a day, and that if you spend them exercising your body you will be fitter, and if you spend them studying you will do better at exams? Throw a part-time job and a hectic social life into the mix and where will you be?
If the Leaving Cert points system hadn’t such a dire and life-altering effect on the future of young people, this would not be a dilemma at all. In the meantime, the nerds will continue to inherit the earth. – Yours, etc,
JOHN THOMPSON,
Phibsboro,
Dublin 7.