I am a history teacher and baseball coach who also teaches middle school boys and girls at my school to fly fish. I find that the girls are easier to teach simply because most have not yet learned to cast a spinning rod and thus will readily attempt to put power on the backcast and guide the forward cast. Boys who have fished with lures want to power the rod on the forward cast as if casting a spinning rod. This habit is often hard to break in most 12 year old boys and rarely exists in the 12 year old girls. Also, middle school girls are generally more mature than the boys in their class and tend to listen more closely. Many of the boys feel that fishing is a "guy" thing and believe they know everything about it, even before I begin the instruction. This year I had four girls and four boys in my fly fishing class. The girls were the easiest to teach and the best casters hands down! Lefty was right . . . as usual!!!