It is a wide and popular belief that boys and girls are supposed to act in very similar ways in the early years of their education. However, boys develop certain characteristics later than girls and as a result tend to be less patient and be more restless in the classroom. This tends to lead to a difference in grades based off these characteristics. Through the use of logos, her authority on the topic, and overall tone Sommers dissects this belief and shows some alternatives that could lead to boys succeeding at a younger age. 

Within the first two paragraphs, Sommers gets into the idea at the heart of her argument. She gives evidence from “The Journal of Human Resources” that found at an early age “girls, as a rule, tend to comport themselves far better than boys.” (Sommers 303) This example of logos is further explained a few lines down where she shows some of the specifics in the data. She goes on to show that there were “5,800 students from kindergarten through fifth grade” that “received lower grades than their test scores would have predicted.” (Sommers 303) After she uses the data in the study, she points out part of her intended audience being parents with children. The main point being, if parents don’t understand why their son has a lower grade than their daughter then they can be prone to frustration with their kid, whereas if they were to be informed on the topic they may not be as frustrated. 

Following the identification of the parent of young children as the audience, Sommers shows how the difficulty with school is a problem dating back to Shakespearian times by referencing Shakespeare’s, “whining schoolboy with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school.” (Sommers 303) This adds to the credibility of the essay and gives some historical context to the problem at hand showing that it isn’t anything new, and is most likely engrained in boyhood as opposed to something they’ve been taught. From here she adds to the historical context of the problem by showing how a shift in the job market in the 70s led to a substantial increase in “the relative value of college and postgraduate degrees.” Because of this shift “Women now account for roughly 60 percent of associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees” (Sommers 304) This shows the classroom tends to favor women over men simply because the traits women tend to have prime them to be more successful in this area.

Sommers continues down the tracks of historical context, she points out some of the trends that may be responsible for a decline in the engagement levels in boys. She points out “the decline of recess, zero-tolerance discipline policies, the tendency to criminalize minor juvenile misconduct, and the turn away from single sex schooling.” (Sommers 304) Since the schools are move themselves away from the active risk taking side, the thing that made boys, boys, is now being made into a version of misconduct. This is only adding to the problem of boys having trouble in school by not letting them burn off any energy, or act in the way they’re supposed to. 

She then moves onto the second point being globalization. She goes on to quote Richard Whitmire and William Brozo by saying, “whichever nation solves these ‘boy troubles’ wins the race.” (Sommers 305) This adds to the credibility of the essay since the two people she’s quoting are two experts, being “an education writer” and “a literary expert”, qualified to be speaking in a field where she may not be proficient. However, the race being referred to involves building the most educated workforce. Then, she points out how an increase in male education would likely lead to increased productivity in the labor market.

From this point, she moves on to discuss possible solutions being developed and some that are in practice to the gap in education. Here she uses some of her authority in the field of philosophy to show how some of the programs in use in Britain, Canada, and Australia are addressing the issue. It looks as if she’s using the credibility she has built up through the course of the essay to allow her to make suggestions on how to fix the issue like aviation schools, and schools that teach in a way that promotes a hands on learning experience in a way that seems like it’s coming from a credible source.  

The entire essay is built around her authority in the field of philosophy and gender politics. At the moment, she is a “resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where she studies the politics of gender”. (AEI) She has earned her Ph.D. from Brandeis University and has served as a professor of philosophy at Clark University. She also adds to her authority on the issue by quoting those qualified to speak in areas she may not be proficient in.

Through the use of her own authority, logos, overall context, and tone, Sommers crafts an effective argument showing why boys have struggled in the early years of school. Since she is currently a resident scholar studying gender politics at the American Enterprise Institute it gives her authority to speak on the issue and suggest possible solutions. She not only uses her authority to speak on the, but uses logos in the form of statistics and historical context to flush out her arguments and add to the credibility of the essay as a whole. Overall, these tools help to provide a valid argument and possible solutions for closing the gap in education between boys and girls.

