Why Don’t More Men Go Into Teaching?

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.

Looking back over my life, I have always worked with kids in some capacity - even when I was a kid myself. Mostly in association with whatever church we were attending. Even while in the military I ran Bible cubs or VBS at my house, worked with Cub Scouts when my boys were that age, etc. The two male teachers I had back in Jr. high had a positive influence on me. In many ways I thought they were more fair and didn’t sweat the small stuff. I was an elementary school counselor overseas in what used to be called DoDDS (Dept. of Defense Dependent Schools) one of the few places where a man, as an educator, can still provide for his family due to the benefits given for being overseas. While at a school in Germany (U.S. military facility) our school population shrank during the draw down of the U.S. military in the early 90’s. Our population changed so dramatically that I thought for sure our school would be closed - but it stayed open. However, I had to change jobs as my position as counselor was no longer supported (too few students). My administrator had to put me in 2nd grade (thought I’d at least get an upper elem. grade). I didn’t want to do it and thought about just moving back to the U.S. However, we had just move there two years earlier and I didn’t want to move again as my own kids were in high school. I bit the bullet and took the job. My first year I thought I was going to die. These were y-o-u-n-g kids and many with special needs. It was trial by fire. I had 28 and 29 kids every year for 8 years as I was the only second grade class in my school. Many of these kids had sever problems and difficult family situations - unfortunately, what seems to be the norm now days. Today the primary grades are limited to 18 students in that same system. Here’s some of what I learned: you can be Attila the Hun (not that I was trying for that) and second graders will still love you. It’s a lot like parenting only without some of the benefits. Marriage and having children are two realities that tend to drive out narcissistic traits from an individual - well, if you’re willing. I think teaching might be another. You’ll have four or five parents that really appreciate what you do, most are ambivalent and you’ll have four or five that hate everything you do. More than half of the parents will think that you aren’t doing enough for their child - no matter how much you actually are doing. Get used to it - it’s an attitude that just seems to go with the territory. Some people do well in high stress environments. If you’re one of those you’ll do ok - if not better look elsewhere. There are different types of stress. Teaching seems like it has a lot of relational stress as well as organization and time management stress. I learned a lot that first year in the classroom and in the years following. I learned to adjust and be successful. A big sense of humor helps and a strong grasp of reality - a thick skin is a plus. You can’t have adult conversations with young kids but you can have good relationships with them. At the lower grades the curriculum is easy but the provisioning is very difficult as is the adjusting for learning styles and learning issues young children often have. It’s a rewarding job in many ways but the rewards often come at the end or even after that child has left your grade level. If you’re a bad teacher you can’t hide. Your community knows who you are and they will fight to avoid you (as they should). Additionally, parents are still learning about school and about their child - so you face lots of idealism. By the time that same kid gets into 5th or 6th grade, the parents have heard from several teachers the same “issues” over and over regarding their child. As a result, some “reasonableness” seems to creep into the parents’ minds in dealing with little Johnny or Judy and perhaps the student gets the help they need. Unfortunately, it works that way a lot. Many teachers will tell you it’s not what goes on in the classroom (sometimes it is) that makes a teacher’s job difficult. It’s the “other” things and the politics, and for me, the increasing liberalism of our culture. Your common sense is increasingly assaulted or put on hold in this most of p.c. environments. Discipline issues, especially with a weak administrator, are a black hole for your limited time - very often with unsatisfactory results. I got the chance to work as a reading specialist for four years (and eventually got back into counseling) before retiring. I struggled to read when I was young and was retained in fourth grade (oh, if my own teachers could see me now!). So I really enjoyed that time and learned some of what I had missed. As a specialist you get to focus on one thing. It can be immensely rewarding seeing a young child that was failing, gain the skills to master reading. Education is one of those professions where everyone thinks they can do better (many can, few want to). It has always been a favorite whipping boy and an easy target. That is likely to continue. There is much wrong with our current system and a lot wrong with the students that are coming into our schools. If I were a parent today with young children, I would be homeschooling or be part of a homeschooling cooperative. Five students to one teacher is almost always better than 28 to one. There are still good public schools out there and still some very good teachers as well - you just have to hunt harder for them. I personally believe that with the modern technology available, if used correctly, we could have the best of both worlds and radically break todays paradigm for the better. I don’t think we will ever replace the human interactions that are needed in educating children and adults but some of what’s available today is creating more options for some of the “parts” of the building. Just my two cents ;- )

I find it hilarious that there is such a problem with teaching intelligent design vs standard, randomly generated, evolution... it would be a wonderful opportunity to teach the concepts of evolutionary science.

How right you are. Not only the concepts of evolutionary "science" but how short the "standard, randomly generated, evolution" model falls for being able to explain those things that occur in nature which are impossible for mere random chance-driven events to explain.

Most scientists I know consider themselves to be intelligent. It is fun to watch all the tail chasing and intellectual contortions in which they (academics mostly) engage as they try to attribute to random chance the intellectual edifices they consider themselves to be -- especially after having worked so hard to design for themselves what they considered to be a convincing academic study track!

It is most amusing for me to see that these same academics can't cause to happen without design in their own laboratories what they claim happened in nature by directionless, serendipitous chance -- and above all without design -- lest they be accused of straying from the political sensibilities of the academic plantation's party line!

Speaking for myself, I can't ever recall having run anything but a designed experiment -- at least not if I wanted the data derived from it to be scientifically meaningful.

FReegards!

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