I'm confused by your comments about boys being required to employ some decorum in their behavior, and how this is bad.
First let me say you will not find too many more opposed to affirmative action than I. I guess I have passed this on to my kids, (both girls), as my oldest declined the best of the scholarships offered her for graduate work in engineering, (4 years of full tuition and a very generous stipend), simply because it was for women only. If you're going to assert that she does not deserve her place at a prestigious top drawer university studying for a PhD in engineering, and that she got it because she was a woman, you have an earful coming. You do not want to hear the list of accomplishments that made this a possibility for her. It might harm your thesis that this is a girl's world. So, don't peg me as a feminazi. I could not be further from it. I'm much closer to Phyllis Schaffly or Dr. Laura when it comes to most issues. But I don't buy your thesis about boys and the example used to illustrate it is just stupid. Here's why I can't buy your argument.
On the one hand you praise the "rational disciplined approach" used by the military, and on the other you condemn a teacher for "disciplining" a student for highly inappropriate comments in a classroom. If you have not been in the classroom, you can't take this to its logical conclusion, that is, what would happen if you tolerated any and all trash talk coming from these kids mouths. The classroom would be a joke, or more of a joke than it can be in the current climate of indulgent parents who think their little darlings can do no wrong. Think these kinds of kids can make it in the military? I'd love to witness the kid asking the officer in charge why the hell he had to fall in and do "crap" like that. Believe me, this kind of behavior is not helpful in math and science.
Moreover, I can certainly attest to having witnessed both as a student and as a professor, that in the "hard sciences" you cite as requiring this type of behavior, it is rarely seen. In fact, you have a very large international community of men and women involved in these areas, and believe me, they work their a$$es off and don't give any lip. There is far too much work to split hairs over certain assignments. In fact, this type of whining is a good indicator that the hard sciences is too tough and probably not a good choice for this type of person, (male or female). Inquisitive? Yes. Argumentative? In aruing for or against a particular solution to a problem, yes, again, but not disrespectfully. This is a basic rule in the technology industry, where little is accomplished if managers let the creative process degenerate into finger pointing and fighting.
The problem with your reasoning is that the "inquisitive" trait you describe as being helpful in math, science and business, is very different from the disrespectful, arrogant traits shining through in the "why do we have to do this crap?" comment from the example in this article. So, what I might have considered an interesting topic fell completely flat.
As to the allusion that I SUPPORTED the referenced 10th grade male who was disruptive, another read of my posting will show you that I did not.
That said, his attitude could be used to illustrate 10 years of frustration at not having more respectful inquiries answered in a rational way. And to suggest that military TRAINING does not respond to such inquiry is reflective of your ignorance of the military method. Military training ALWAYS answers the "why" in a rational way...but the "why" is rarely asked, and never answered, under operational circumstances.
Now, the technology business is something I have a couple of decades of experience with (in addition to a decade of military experience). The "why" question is ALWAYS ASKED, and eventually, ALWAYS ANSWERED. Additionally, competitive behavior is generally, and culturally, encouraged. There are winners and losers. Winners are great and losers suck. Same with military culture.
Anethema to your feminine sensibilites, I'm sure.