Being a teacher, I enjoyed this episode. Although, the purpose of separating boys and girls is not to dumb down the curriculum for girls, there is a lot of “raising self esteem” in education. We want everybody to feel good about themselves without achieving anything.
I also loved that they used Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick” over the closing credits.
27
As with almost all Simpsons episodes of the last decade, no laugh out loud moments, no jokes that would be good enough to go on an classic early episode, but still infinitely better than Friends or Will & Grace.
I thought this one was very good. They were a little late weighing in on Lawrence Summers, but they did a good job of it and most of the jokes worked.
I thought the opening *Lion King-esque * sequence went on WAY too long.
And my feelings on the episode were similar to those of Wee Bairn.
I thought it was a great episode, and I think this has been a pretty strong season.
A bit long, but still brilliant.
Best part of the episode. The Simpsons writers seem to be at their most inspired when doing parodies of musicals.
I liked it when Lisa was admiring the Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keefe paintings and then the third painting was one of Cathy (from the comics) making a lame crack about fitting into her swim suit.
I know Spiif referenced it, but the whole quote is too good to pass up:
“You can be equal to or greater than the boys!”
“You may only be eight, but you have infinite possibilities!”
“27!”
“I got hit by boy Lisa and girl Lisa!”
“We’ve been Yentyled!”
Odd thing. In the scene where Martin went on stage to perform as the school’s “best flotist,” Jethro Tull was the first thing I thought of. Then, just a few seconds later, they close with Jethro Tull over the end credits.
As for the episode itself, it was basically a retread of the time Lisa went to the military school because she felt academically unchallenged at Springfield Elementary.
“Addressing me by my first name is HARRASSMENT!”
“Meh…in for a penny, in for a pound…”
“You just beat up the most harmless kid in school! Awesome!”
Oh and
“I’don’t have opinions anymore. Everybody’s equal and we’re all the best at everything…”
First recent episode (recent: within the last 5-6 years) I’ve really enjoyed. I cracked up at the end, when Martin played the flute and recited “Thick as a Brick”.
I loved the Wendy Carlos/Clockwork Orange background music on the playground scenes.
Best episode in a while.
You can’t really achieve anything if you feel bad about yourself, though. First things first.
Still, it was a great episode.
Is that what he was reciting at the end? If so, my subconscious mind picked it up faster than my conscious mind.
27? I don’t get it. 
There is no real joke, other than the line is spoken by the number 27. The first two lines are spoken by a greater-than-or-equal-to sign and the number 8, respectively, so you expect, based on this pattern, for another number or math symbol to appear and make a similar pun based on itself. Instead, the number 27 says “27!” thus breaking the pattern.