Jake was being honest with Joseph, although after his accident he had closed the doors of his heart to the novel, Jake came from a time when women sought the same rights as men.
So those conventions that were once more commonplace that Joseph thought was right did not exist anymore if women liked someone they would go and take the initiative.
Jake found this very cool, perhaps because he was raised by Eve alone, he was someone who recognized the strengths of women in society and supported women to have the same rights as men.
Although this was a normal conversation about 2020 in the 1990s was something people were not accustomed to openly talk about.
After Jake stopped talking because the class was about to start and he did not want to bring a bad first impression to his teachers, looking around at his classmates, Jake realized he had almost no students he studied at Middle School.
