As I noted in my book The Church Impotent, the Christian churches and the schools are both female oriented, and boys, especially blue-collar boys, do not like to go to them.

In Quebec, the Montréal Gazette reports

It is mainly boys who drop out and in Quebec, they are mostly French-speaking. Before coming to power in 2003, the Liberal government promised to improve this grim situation, but in fact the dropout rate in the province has gotten worse, not better.

In 2000, 26 per cent of students in public secondary schools left without graduating. By 2008, that rate rose to 29 per cent. Among Quebec’s boys, the figure is 35 per cent. In poor neighbourhoods the proportion reaches dizzying heights: Six per cent of Westmount students drop out; in neighbouring Point St. Charles, the rate is six times as high.

This situation, at least in schools, is not irremediable.

At the same time that Quebec’s dropout rate is climbing, Ontario’s has been falling. Today, for every 100 Ontario dropouts, Quebec has 137.

and

Finland’s dropout rate is a mere four per cent.

The problems of boys in inner-city American schools are not just racial, and the solutions may be out there – if anyone were interested.

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