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One of my junior high teachers was accused of sexually molesting of one his female students. He was a teacher for 30+ years and there was never a single incident before this. The whole staff, and most parents believed that he was guilty. But most of us students were behind the teacher. And he was innocent. The student in question lied, never did find out why though. The teacher sued for a public apology, and he got it. He his still a teacher at the same school.
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My ex-husband (we're divorced but still amicable)worked hard to get early childhood education credentialling, and was very popular with the children at the preschool where he worked. Ultimately though he quit teaching because the prejudice against male teachers around very young children is so strong. I don't think he anticipated that, nor ever quite recovered from the injustice and the guilt of no crime but being a concerned male who loved kids.
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I think it's fantastic that males get involved in early childhood education, the earlier the better for kids.
This is a good example of men contributing and acting in a pro-active way to affect the quality of childrens education, and not just acedemic education, the most fundemental social education.
Does anyone know of Men's groups who encourage more male teachers in ways like offereng scholarships to study Early Childhood Education?
It's important to get people who are truly interested and dedicated to kid's in these jobs and pay them well. Many pre-school workers are, frankly, only there because that's the only job available for their "experience" level. That and a lack of qualified people being interested becasue of low pay. It's completely backwards. This is one of the more important jobs in our entire society.
There were zero males at my daughter's pre-school but there are several male teachers (about 5) at her elementary school. She currently has a male teacher (3rd grade) who has over 30 years of experience. I've been quite impressed with him so far. He is retiring after this year. I wish there were more of him to follow!
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Lorianne said: "He is retiring after this year. I wish there were more of him to follow!"
That's great Lorianne! The thing to do now is to become active in seeing to it that the anti-male prejudice (note the article) is removed and that the threat of false accusations (as noted in the two posts that preceeded yours) is also removed.
Let us know how your activism works out.
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It's so sad that men are being filtered out of middle schools. My son is in middle school now and the ONLY teachers he likes are the men. They simply know how to act around boys and how to set limits. Once they have set the limits the class can have fun. I hear stories every day after school about what this teacher does and what he lets them get away with. The bottom line is that the boys and girls LEARN in his class and they have fun. There is not a female teacher of his who he likes.
There are some good reasons for this. This is the age where boys in tribal cultures are traditionally separated from the women. They are isolated with the men for a period of time. Sometimes a couple of years. I have found that men in our culture "know" in their bodies how to deal with the young boys while the women tend to get anxious with them and once they get anxious things tend to go haywire. I'm sure that a part of this is that women just don't understand testosterone and its impacts on this age boys. We men remember well.
I write letters to the board of ed. about these male teachers and how pleased I am. It's not much but I think it can help a little.
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I don't think you can say a teacher is good or bad because of his/her gender. I've had good and bad of both sexes growing up.
Part of life is learning to effectively deal with individuals you don't like for one reason or another or just people of a differnt cultural bias. I'm not advocating keeping bad teachers, far from it, just making a point that kids need to learn to get along with different types of people.
I think having positive same-sex adult role models is extremely important for both girls and boys. (I send my girl to summer camp where the councilors are virtually all women). But I wouldn't support segregating our public schools or classroom based on sex or race. (If a private school offered a segregated faculty to match the segregated kids. I'd have no problem with that).
Segregation in public schools is just not a good idea on the basis of race or sex IMO. I'm considering same-sex education for my girl right now in private school; weighing the pros and cons. If I had a son I'd be onsidering the same. But even same-sex schools have mixed faculty.
I seem to remember reading that there are a greater number of male teachers in private schools. This might be an additional reason there aren't enough male teachers in public schools (besides there not being enough overall).
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Actually there is an amazing amount of evidence that segregated classes are extremely helpful in SOME instances for boys and girls. Research was done on boys who were on the verge of dropping out and were placed into single-sex classes. They improved dramatically to the point of actually passing classes. (note: this is mostly done in the UK who is much more progressive in male/boy issues)
also I would I would like to note that the complaint that is heard from many feminist groups is that men in education hold the positions of "power" such as principals and administration. I counter this with the fact (which this article supports) men are not allowed to work with children as teacher and often forced by this bias into positions that do not have direct contact with children. (I love watching them choke on that little tid bit of info)
Tony H
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I really question whether men are forced into positions that do not have direct contact with children. It just doesn't sound logical to me and doesn't fit with my (limited) experience.
Granted teachers unions are known to be quite defensive and protective of their positions, but I haven't heard of any evidence that they are defensive of their jobs on the basis of sex. Neither have I heard anything like this bias in working closely with my kid's school. Parents WANT more male teachers. That's all I've ever heard. And if parents want it and if, as you say males are in the more decision making positions, I don't see how men as teachers could be excluded on a large scale. This implies a real organized female teacher effort to keep males out of teaching which I find a dubious premis.
I rather think it is the relative low pay in teaching which is a disincentive for men to enter teaching. And not just men. Any qualified person.
One thing I wonder about though is this: If pay is (supposedly) so low but standards are kept high, it would seem to logically follow that a greater percentage of teachers are there because of a truly abiding interest in teaching.
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I agree we treat our teachers as second-class workers and the economic pressure men feel to provide is a factor but I feel that social pressure is also a major player.
I will try and break down what I mean by forced into administration roles.
First force is not always overt sometimes its covert. My line of reasoning goes something like this:
Women are more nurturing than men.
(This stereotype is well known.)
Men are seen as potential sexual aggressors.
(again the stereotype)
Any man that wants to be around children is suspect of being either gay or child molesters. (this is supported by the news article and the attention men get for hugging or touching children).
All this is not overt but suspicions and hearsay that is prevalent. While many parents want male teachers as role models for their children they also feel protective and any "extra" attention from a male teacher directed at their children is certainly under greater scrutiny than the same attention from a female teacher. My theory is that this pressure combined with the "breadwinner/big wheel" stereotypes pressures men to accept promotions.
Here is a story from a person I knew at my college. He was interested in childcare and education so he took classes in the childcare program at the college that used the schools daycare as a teaching environment. From the first day he was under added scrutiny of the students who were all female. They questioned his motives and made him feel unwanted, sadly he ended up dropping out of the program and changed his major.
Another story: I asked a professor once if they would have concerns if they went to a daycare and an older male was the only worker there. She said yes because men are more likely to abuse children. (I then corrected her of course and supplied the facts about neglect, abuse and molestation.)
I do not think that all parents or teachers feel this way but it only takes a few vocal ones to change the direction a person takes in a career.
Tony H
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