I'm writing a research paper for an English class. I proposed to make it on the subject of boys being treated unfairly in school. In my proposal assignment I used "The War Against Boys" by Christina Hoff Summer as a research reference.

Here is my professor's response to my idea-

"This sounds like a fascinating topic and one that I’d love to learn more about from your research. However, I have several concerns. First, how will you meet the global requirement for this topic? See the third bullet here: http://eacfaculty.org/owl/102/topics.mht.

Second, are you open-minded about this topic? Your mentioning of Sommers’ book are your starting place worries me because it’s a highly debatable (and not well-respected) book. Are you already a fan of her ideas? If so, I respect that, but this probably isn’t a good research topic for you. It’s great for you to have strong opinions, but for this project, you need to be able to approach debates with an open mind. Sommers’ ideas have been strongly critiqued, like in this article in the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/books/reviews/waragainstboys0703.htm. Will you be able to consider alternate viewpoints equally? Could you look seriously at opposing authors’ ideas, such as these?: http://www.amazon.com/Boys-Will-Men-Paul-Kivel/dp/0865713952/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391384620&sr=1-1&keywords=boys+will+be+men http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385499329/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Last, your topic is still quite broad. A good rule of thumb is that, if you have entire books on your topic, it’s too broad: you don't have time to read whole books plus whole books presenting opposing ideas, and you don't have room in your paper to include as much info as you would get from entire books. It's hard to cover a topic thoroughly if it's too broad. Instead, look at how the books and articles you find narrow it down—look at how they break it into sections. Then you could pick one or several of those sections to write about. I’m going to go ahead and approve this topic, but please email me about the concerns I have—how you might have a global focus (or your justification for researching a non-global topic, like a strong personal interest or reasons from your life), whether you are able to be open-minded, and narrowing the topic."

So I am wondering how I can make my topic more global, what other works I can use besides Sommmers, and how I could narrow this topic (I was thinking "how boys are oppressed in elementary school" or something along those lines.)

I know for a fact that boys are treated unfair in school because I've experienced it. I didn't really care about this project before, but now I really want to make something out of this. Any help or links to studies would be greatly appreciated.