The vanishing male teacher

This looks like a good one for Mark. With child abuse accusations being what they are, I think men who go into teaching should be given a medal for heroism

When she interviews teaching candidates, principal Laurel Telfer favors the ones who show they have a heart for children, not just solid instructional skills. And if the best applicant happens to be a man? That’s such a plus that Telfer says she does a “little happy dance.” Only two of the 35 teachers at her school, Rossmoor Elementary in Los Alamitos, California, are men. “If you’re looking at what’s best for the students, it’s important for them to interact with the two sexes,” Telfer said. “The way men work with kids, there’s a difference in style and approach. I think students really benefit from having that mix, because as they get to middle school, they’re going to have a whole variety of classes. Men help bridge that.”

As a new academic year approaches, school districts, education groups and universities are exploring ways to get more men into a field long dominated by women. Their goal is to provide more male role models in class and to diversify the labor pool of dedicated teachers. The proportion of men in teaching today is at its lowest level in 40 years, according to the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union. Only 21 percent of teachers in U.S. public schools are men. In early grades, the gender ratio is even more imbalanced—just 9 percent of elementary school teachers are men. [No mystery why. That’s where accusations are most likely]

“It’s not just that it would be nice to have more guys. It goes deeper than that,” said Bryan Nelson, founding director of MenTeach, a nonprofit that recruits men into teaching. Getting more men into classrooms, Nelson said, would help show children that society as a whole places a deep value on education and would add balance to their school life. His group aims to provide prospective male teachers with mentors, training and stipends. Men often must overcome concerns about their salaries, a perception that teaching isn’t masculine, and even

public fears that they pose a danger to kids

, Nelson said. So he appeals to their pride: “I tell them, ‘Can you imagine what you’re doing for these kids? You’re a pioneer. You’re teaching kids how to read. You’re setting up their future.”’

In most cases, however,

school districts are limited in how they can recruit men because federal anti-discrimination law prevents them from hiring based on gender.

“Your applicant pool is going to be tainted by your recruiting techniques if there’s a gender bias,” said Lisa Soronen, a staff attorney for the National School Boards Association. “The real way to get teaching to be a more attractive profession is to change the societal norms and structure of the profession. But no individual principal can do that.”

Telfer tries, though. She takes steps to make men feel more comfortable, such as asking female teachers to rein in their lunchroom chatter about intimate matters. And she lets male teachers serve on the committees that interest them, she said. One of Telfer’s two male teachers, fifth-grade instructor Stacey De Salvo, got into the field because he enjoys working with children and discovering knowledge along with them. In some years, he’s been the only male teacher in his school, which took an adjustment. “You just feel like things are out of balance when you’re the only guy,” De Salvo said. “You get a solitary feeling. ... Elementary school is seen as a woman’s domain, and when I came in, I felt kind of isolated.”

More here

Posted by jonjayray on Monday, July 18, 2005 at 02:46 AM in Education
Comments (9) | Tell a friend

Comments:

Posted by Mark Richardson on July 18, 2005, 05:31 AM | #

The good thing, John, is that mandatory police checks seem to be keeping the molesters away from teaching so I don’t think there’s as much damage to the reputation of male teachers as there was a few years ago.

The bigger problems now are twofold. First, although the pay is steady it’s not high for professional work.

Worse, academics are always pushing the idea that teaching should be about enhancing the autonomy of students. It’s reached the point at which even mild punishments like detentions are labelled as “coercive”.

So teachers are left to “manage” disruptive students in a way which is very counterintuitive for an adult male.

By the way, I don’t think it’s abnormal for women to dominate the earlier years of teaching. You would expect women to be more interested than men in working with very young children.

Posted by Mark Richardson on July 18, 2005, 05:48 AM | #

On a different topic, readers of MR might be interested to learn that Andrew Fraser, who’s posted here a few times, was featured on Australia’s leading current affairs show tonight (with several million viewers).

He came across as intelligent and well-spoken, though (understandably) a little nervous.

I thought his best argument was in response to the host’s claim that all the different ethnic groups in Australia got on well.

Andrew replied along the lines that people might mingle together in the shopping malls but that uniting together in the act of shopping didn’t make for a deeper sense of common life together.

Andrew also went into arguments about IQ and cognitive abilities. He mentioned the low IQ of sub-Saharan Africans.

Although these arguments are true and important, I’m not sure that this is what is most likely to impress a mass, suburban audience.

Although the host, Ray Martin, was clearly unsympathetic and labelled Andrew’s views as racist, he was more relaxed and friendly in the interview than I would have expected.

There’s a poll to see what the audience thought - I’ll be interested to see how the numbers turn out.

Posted by Guessedworker on July 18, 2005, 08:06 AM | #

Mark,

How overt were Ray Martin’s accusations of racism? Did Andrew Fraser have an opportunity to respond?

Posted by AD on July 18, 2005, 10:40 AM | #

re:Andrew Fraser

I’m listening to Sydney talkback radio now,no mention of his TV appearance yet(i missed it too).If anyone is online now,they might like to go to 2gb.com and listen in.At the moment,people are just talking about stripping muslims of citizenship but someone is bound to bring up Prof Fraser.

Posted by Mark Richardson on July 18, 2005, 05:06 PM | #

GW, the accusations of racism were overt. At one stage Ray Martin even said something like “This is Hitler stuff”. Andrew Fraser responded just with a denial of “No, it’s not.”.

To be fair to Ray Martin, he ended in a quite friendly way by saying “I disagree with you but think you have the right to say what you want.” So the racism accusation wasn’t an attempt to intimidate or shut down speech on the issue.

As I said earlier, I don’t think it’s the science of IQ differences which works best in terms of a mass audience - but rather the things which are immediate to most people’s feelings, such as gang violence, loss of identity, loss of opportunity (which Andrew Fraser has raised in terms of Asians dominating the professions in Australia) and so on.

Posted by Tim on July 19, 2005, 03:15 AM | #

This has been an issue here in Australia. The private catholic school syste (which educates more than 20% of all Australian school students) sought to adopt some ‘affirmative action’ for male teachers by introducing a some scholarships to encourage men into the teaching profession. They ran into problems with the “Anti-Discrimination” regulators who banned the whole idea.

Posted by AD on July 19, 2005, 04:42 AM | #

re: Andrew Fraser again

He was on ACA again tonight,and they gave the results of the phone in poll,which tens of thousands of people responded to.You have to remember that this tv show is one of the highest rating in Australia.

85% of respondents agreed with Andrew Frasers views.

Posted by AD on July 19, 2005, 05:13 AM | #

We need a Le Pen,the time is ripe.

Posted by m.t on July 30, 2005, 01:19 AM | #

It’s disgusting to see such support of overtly racist opinions. Fraser’s behaviour is abhorrent, and his “right” to free speech should be questioned and not upheld - in a context where he abuses his power (accusations of disadvanting non-white students at Macquarie uni, amongst other things).
Secondly, IQ tests are redundant, get with current scholarship!
Don’t fall for politics of fear.

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