Posted on 09/08/2014 8:17:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
AS Tommie Leaders, 22, approached college graduation last spring, his professors told him he would have no trouble getting hired. “You’re a guy teaching elementary, ” they said.
Mr. Leaders, who earned his education degree from the University of Nebraska in June, started teaching fifth grade last month in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He is the only male teacher in the building.
Across the country, teaching is an overwhelmingly female profession, and in fact has become more so over time. More than three-quarters of all teachers in kindergarten through high school are women, according to Education Department data, up from about two-thirds three decades ago. The disparity is most pronounced in elementary and middle schools, where more than 80 percent of teachers are women.
Educators, advocates and lawmakers fight bitterly about tenure, academic standards and the prevalence of testing, but one thing most sides tend to agree on is the importance of raising the status of teaching so the profession will attract the best candidates.
A change in the gender imbalance could sway the way teaching is regarded. Jobs dominated by women pay less on average than those with higher proportions of men, and studies have shown that these careers tend to enjoy less prestige as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Why should they?
Because kids are bat-sh!t crazy.
I read an article some years ago, about a school which hired a man kindergarten teacher. And there were numerous parental complaints and concerns about a man in such a job.
At least in that place, its as if people just expect that a kindergarten teacher will be female.
And we could explore why people.have such ingrained attitudes about what is appropriate for men in the teaching profession.
I am an adjunct instructor at a 2-yr college. We had a department meeting last week and a buddy and I counted.
The department chair is a woman, her deputy is a woman.
Out of ten full-time instructors, seven are women, two are foreign-born Blacks from Africa, one white male is full time.
Of the adjuncts, out of 14, ten are male, four are female.
My friend and I are the ‘old’ guys, retired and just enjoy teaching, whereas the rest of the adjuncts are young and are desperate for a full-time position.
From what we can tell from anecdotal discussions with other departments and counting on-line, my department is not an anomaly. College-wide, roughly 80% of the full time instructors (and department chairs) are females.
“Gender-bias” in hiring full-time instructors? You bet. No problem being an adjunct but essentially no chance of being picked up full-time.
So, what was that article saying about a push to hire/attract males?
I tried. I really did. I subbed in our local school system for three years, to the delight of students, teachers, and administrators.
When there were two openings for history teachers, I thought I was a shoo-in for the gig.
I never got a call or an email, nor did anyone come to my house to tell me I had earned an interview.
So, I decided to force the issue (= going for broke), and made an appointment to see the principal, with whom I was on a first name basis, talking sports and some such.
The principal told me my credentials were platinum (and they are), but couldn’t find any evidence in my dossier that I had... wait for it....
coached a sport.
So, I’m outaluck teaching in New Jersey.
That’s OK. I’m back in engineering, and very happy. I still pursue my historical interests, so it’s a +++ all the way around.
Of course, using my real name as a handle at FR might have had something to do with my career change, rather, failure to do so.
No problem. I just thought you’d all like to know.
Pete
Perhaps its because the academic environment has become pretty hostile to the average male?
Not one word in the article about the way men are treated with suspicion when they are around kids, or about the high potential for false charges of sexual harassment or sexual assault.
And not a word about the screening that starts from the moment one applies to ed school, where they consider attitudes more important than achievements.
I once looked in to the possibilities of becoming a teacher and was utterly repelled by what I found but that wasn’t because I was a man. It was because I was a Conservative.
We still had quite a few male teachers in the early 80s but the new teachers coming in were a whole different breed and the males were all metromales.
Most of the old school male teachers had businesses aside from teaching. One owned a construction company, another owned a string of bars. Our vice principal worked on the farm with us during the summers.
If you are a supervisor on a job you are in effect a teacher. A big part of what you do is mentoring and training younger guys.
My wife is a teacher, and I could never do it. I’d go broke just on duct tape alone...
Because of the stultifying public education bureaucracy.
It is sad that with so many military vets unemployed that they can not get into teaching.
Because they don’t want to have a news story mentioning their dalliances with students posted on FR.
Studies indicate that young males, particularly young minority males from single-mother households, do much better in school if a male authority figure is leading the classroom.
Of course the feminazis have worked triple-overtime to suppress that.
“coached a sport.”
If you had a record of that, I’m sure that they would have come up with some other reason to deny you the job.
I believe that premise.
Unfortunately a lot of the males in elementary school teaching seem a bit short on testosterone....
Whatever the reasons, I think the kids are on the losing end. So many kids are being raised by moms only, with no positive male influence. Good, ethical, intelligent male teachers could provide some positive male role models.
I’m a 38 year old male and I teach 5th grade Math, Science, and US History in Texas. We actually have several men at my school. Every year on the first day of school I ask the kids if they have ever had a male teacher. Most have not. Every year I have siblings of kids from previous years and have been requested by parents because the older brothers and sisters enjoyed being in my class.
In case anyone is wondering, I’m on my lunch break, not Freeping during class.
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