"Does school or society cause boy dropouts?"

Yes

is clearly a bigot. Apparently it's okay for boys to drop out of school in disproportionately greater numbers because genuises did likewise and still suceeded. Some of the comments suggest that this sort of thing is a 'backlash' towards feminism. What a joke.

I don't have time to read the whole article right now, but based on what is in the description, the loser who wrote it is in outer space.

"or is it a society that rewards macho-macho men, extreme athletes and action, and a blow-them-up culture of violence"

This is just more of 'we need to re-engineer masculinity'. There is nothing inherently wrong with male-ness, it just is what it is. The problem is that the schools are more suited to girls than to boys.

"females do better academically in the absence of boys."

Really? According to studies done in the U.K., the reverse is even more true.

"there's conservative literature, including Christina Hoff Sommers' The War Against Boys "

It is literature written by women who happen to be conservatives. Journalists who are liberals always try to use this kind of thing to detract from an author's work.

"girls' presence has a mitigating effect on that Lord of the Flies brutality "

No, the fact that there are girls in the class means the boys will be shortchanged by the female teacher, such as not being allowed rough play or recess. It's an issue of control, not any kind of supposed calming influence due to the presence of girls. In fact, if anything, girls will manipulate, shame, and goad boys into fighting with each other.

-ax

"But really, is the education system at fault – or is it a society that rewards macho-macho men, extreme athletes and action, and a blow-them-up culture of violence?"

It's all these things, and giving boys a school environment more suited to their sex is part of the answer, but as usual when it's boys getting screwed over the feminists run around looking for excuses to do nothing.
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Rise, Rebel, Resist.

I remember high school as being a particularly dangerous place for boys. And the main reason for this was because the teachers and administrators really didn't give a damn. The victims of violence in schools were mere males after all. But if a female got hit then all hell broke loose. Nothing has changed.

the misandrous female teachers, exposed to women studies(WS) as undergrads (probably most), who are doing their darnedest to "level the playing field for women."

This is the truth that only MRAs dare speak. First, one has to ask if most young female teachers took at least one WS course. Second, did the exposure produce some misandry. Third, if so, did this misandry contaminate the classroom.

In a culture that doesn't hold women accountable for anything, we'll be playing checkers with bigfoot before anyone starts looking at the teachers themselves.

Society reward macho men? Maybe if you're surrounded by constantly-playing black-and-white TV's while you're doing your Jim Thorpe workout...er, this is still the 1950's, isn't it?

-ax