My wife is a teacher and she gave me an article to read a couple weeks ago. I don’t know where she got it but it was about a small school district that assigned mostly male teachers, and many district football coaches to a school that had discipline/underperformance problems.
They also had dads volunteer to come in and help supervise lunch. The end result was that the increase in males within the schools was a big deterrent to the discipline problems, and once discipline was established, student performance went up.
Before someone gets upset, I am not saying the men make better teachers, only that some students seem to respond better to men in disciplinary matters, and personal safety might be less of a concern. Of course if someone comes in with a gun, then it doesn’t really matter whether the teacher is male or female.
Question, will this approach work in schools where kids bring in guns and knives, or threaten to terrorize the teacher and damage his property while he is not looking? I think the articles approach will work in blue collar working districts which deals with wise off kids who thinks the system will do nothing to punish them. However the inner cities deal with gangs and criminals.
I understand what you’re saying. I agree (and I’m a female) to an extent. It does seem male teachers, male parent volunteers, etc. provide that little added extra. A male, especially if he’s an alpha male, won’t get the same crap as a tiny female teacher may. I’ve seen it first hand.
I remember way back when I was a young new teacher and one of my high school students was especially nasty. My husband (boyfriend at the time) made an appearance, after an incident, and scared the hell out of the kid. I used to tease my students that I had 3 brothers and a couple teenage nephews that would kick their ass if they messed with me. But mostly, it was about me, the teacher, having control over the class. It helps when a teacher has admin support, parental support, etc., but mostly the teacher has to be able to control the class.
In our high school, the male coaches/teachers usually get lunch duty (more pay too) because it does make a difference in student behavior.