The teacher, a burly presence in the front of the room, calls his young charges "gentlemen," even if they're really boys. He uses his steely gaze as a teaching tool, glaring at a distracted student who had just made a paper airplane. Still, he knows not to admonish the restless students for their sometimes adolescent ways - tapping their pencils and tipping their chairs back at precarious angles.
Enter the flirt-free zone at the Mario Umana Middle School Academy in East Boston, one of the few public schools in the state experimenting with single-sex classes as a way to tame raging hormones, refocus students on their studies, and begin addressing a worsening achievement gap between boys and girls.
Boys still will be boys - and launch their paper planes - but their antics have toned down, teachers said. Girls have stopped preening in class. And both groups appear to be more confident asking and answering questions.
