Rhetorical analysis on Where the Guys Are: Males in Higher Education

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Rhetorical analysis on Where the Guys Are: Males in Higher Education
In Where the Guys Are: Males in Higher Education, Marcus B Heaver Hightower argues that it is vital to look beyond popular opinion in the press based on figures on enrollment in higher education. By focusing on the situation of male enrolment in higher education, the author seems to advocate for more research on education matters with more emphasis on male students. In addition, the author clearly identifies the problems associated with underrepresentation and graduation of male students in comparison to female students. The author seeks to highlight on the need to engage more males in the education system, for there to be success in recruitment and retention of male students in higher education. Consequently, Hightower uses observation, questions, facts and statistics to lay emphasis on the view point that there is a need for more male enrollment and engagement in institutions of higher learning.
Even though, the article begins by acknowledging that one school administrator admitted to favoring boys in admissions, there is a disparity in the numbers enrolling and graduating from universities for both males and females. The mass media is a significant source of information, but the author goes beyond this debate on ‘crisis of boy education’ by focusing on the actual experiences of male in schools. Though he acknowledges the disproportionate high number of female students at the university level this does not capture the whole picture “But in comparing males to females, we sometimes get the impression that boys and men are doing worse than they did before or—a much more insidious and baseless notion (30).”
Hightower further asserts that it is necessary to look at specifics and not simply quoting the enrollment rates for both genders. Thus, the author observes that though there are disparities in the numbers, the nu...