Analysis Of How The Schools Shortchange Boys By Gerry Garibaldi

“How The Schools Shortchange Boys” is different than what the reader might be expecting. The title may lead the reader to believe that boys aren’t treated well at school or they do not receive the attention they deserve from their teachers. The word “shortchanged” means to treat someone unfairly by withholding something of value. The title actually is telling the reader that school are withholding something of value from the boys. Gerry Garibaldi uses logos and anecdotes to support his argument.
Garibaldi’s thesis is boys are shortchanged by feminization and he argues that boys do not want to be girls. He supports his thesis with evidence and short encounters from his own teaching experience. The first piece of evidence he provides is the …show more content…
He explains how Brandon, young man is actually very smart and advanced, but is behaviorally challenged. His student doesn’t understand the point of the work and it doesn’t appeal to him. The women teachers are not accommodating and do not explain the point of the assignments or let them choose a topic that interests them. Garibaldi makes it simple boys are not girls. They may not be eager to do an assignment and they probably won’t be turning it early because that isn’t the way boys work. He also explains how many of the female teachers may view the boys desire to ask questions rude or disrespectful. Garibaldi brings up the argument that their tendency to ask questions makes them succeed in harder math, science and business. He also includes a short story of his own personal encounter with this feminization. Garibaldi explains how he was at a teaching convention and when he was placed in a group the women went straight to work while he sat there. These short stories he includes help to put is argument into perspective. They give the reader’s examples of how boys’ are being withheld from the proper education they deserve. The reader will be able to understand that these problems actually exist. Without the personal experience his essay would be a number of meaningless …show more content…
He chose to use formal words that made him sound extremely smart. He uses words like precocious, penchant, invariable, cohort, and dubious. He used these words to help prove that boys can be intelligent and that they are more than just a distraction in class. Garibaldi used the word precocious to describe Brandon, the word means to develop sooner. He could have said Brandon was advanced but the word precocious makes the author sound more educated. He could have just explained that the boys like asking questions, but he chose to explain it using the word penchant. His formal word choice helped to establish his argument that boys are actually intelligent people but they need a different learning style than