<p>Surely this is a travesty and a clear sign of institutional gender bias. Why have males been discriminated against in this field for so long? Why is it allowed to continue?</p>
<p>I don't know if it is a clear sign of gender bias. I know when here and in NY, here was always a demand for male elementary and middle school ed majors. The problem seems to be the pay. My son has worked with kids for much of his life and he is quite good with a group of kids. Teaching is certainly an option for him. However, he would also want to coach, and the sweetest deals for him would be highschool level. Also, many of the males I know in the field are working to get into administration. My boys went to all boys' schools for elementary years where they really looked for male teachers, and most of the ones my boys had are now administrators whereas most of the females are still teaching.</p>
<p>Men are much too aggressive and tend to shout at small children and make them cry. They are not suited to be elementary school teachers. Men can coach high school boys sports and they can teach college age students. Hope I have answered your question. (There are other more sinister reasons as well, but I dare not mention them here!! Let me just say that women as a group are much less likely than men to be involved in certain criminal behavior that is harmful to children)</p>
<p>I don't know about that NHres. I know plenty of aggressive women who tend to shout at small children and make them cry. Those elemenary school teachers I know who are male seem well suited for the job. They just had other aspirations. I don't know if it is cultural thing or a natural thing. It's just that I have been in systems that seek males and they have a hard time finding and keeping male teachers. Just look at the stats of ed majors and you can see that most males go for the highschool certificate. And those who do get preK-8 certification tend to prefer the older grades. And they don't stick around teaching. You just don't see many older men teaching elementary school. But you see more than the proportional number of male principals when you look at the teachers in elementary school.</p>
<p>Males may not covet jobs where they can't sit down most of the time.</p>
<p>Advantages to going into elementary school teaching for males
They are taller than most of their "co-workers"
Every day is casual day!
No one will comment if you like to eat the same thing everyday.
Great field trips!
Reading Higglety, Piggelty, Pop at storytime.
Hugs
Seeing somebody really "get" it when they learn to read.
Being in charge of 25 bodies.</p>
<p>Disadvantages
If they drop something on the floor the 10 second rule wouldn't apply cause "that would be setting a bad example"!
They have to be the mature one in the room.
They don't fit into those chairs.
Since they are often one of a small number of men at the elementary school, guess who gets to sleep in the boys cabin on overnights! ( and take the boys to the bathroom, change for swimming etc)
They made more money cutting lawns in high school.
They don't like to admit the 5th graders know more about computers.
Reading Harry Potter at story time.
Crying.
Having to teach geography when you can't tell the difference between Mazatlan and Azerbijan.
Trying to match up 25 bodies with their coats on a rainy day.</p>
<p>My younger daughter has had two really good elementary teachers who were male.
My older daughter had few teachers who were male till high school, although her art teacher who was fantastic in elementary school was male.
She is interested in teaching science, she likes elementary students but really wants to teach science over other subjects, so she is more than likely going to stick with middle high school age. Perhaps that is why males like older kids, so they can be a specialist rather than a generalist?</p>
<p>That was really funny!</p>
<p>strangely the last 4 teachers hired at my d's elementary school have been male.</p>
<p>Two of my daughter's best elementary school teachers also were male-one in fourth grade and one in fifth. They were both unusual men. One had been a lawyer in his father's very profitable firm and quit because he LOVED to teach. He gave the kids stamps from his Dad's collection as prizes, he had a rockin' review of current events every morning, paper in hand, and he taught them Latin phrases from the law and elsewhere. The other set up a fully functioning bank in the class, constructed an "archaeological" dig on the school grounds every year, and was just a brilliant, mesmerizing man. We currently have a friend who is teaching the little ones and hates it. His preferred class in eighth grade science. I think the average male prefers older children, and I find that puzzling, considering the number of males I have seen lately who seem to be very involved Dads with their little ones. I suspect that the lack of coaching opportunities and the chance for extra income is a big factor, since men are still frequently the chief breadwinner. You might be on to something with your list, emeraldkity. I laughed out loud at the "You have to be the mature one in the room." ROTFL.</p>
<p>There were two male teachers at my youngest son's elementary school. That's out of 14 teachers. The fourth grade teacher told me once that he really wanted to teach first or second grade but that he was discouraged from doing so. He's a really cool young man but is kind of loud and I can see him frightening some of the little ones. This year he was moved down to third grade but I haven't heard how it worked out since my son's moved on to MS.</p>
<p>The male teachers really do stand out and I wish there were more of them.</p>
<p>I have been on hiring committees for K-12 teachers, and we have actively sought out male teachers. My Ss have had the good fortune to have been taught by both male and female teachers. Some of the male teachers taught humanities, some of the female teachers taught math/science, thus undermining gender stereotypes. One of my S's male teachers, now teaching 6th grade, has a Ph.D. in Education. He is also one of the softest-spoken teachers I've met. He began as a volunteer, tracing literarcy acquisition among kindergarteners and following them through their schooling. He liked teaching kids so much that he applied to be a full-time teacher. My S absolutely adored him.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Men are much too aggressive and tend to shout at small children and make them cry. They are not suited to be elementary school teachers.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>I work in a primary school K-3. There are 5 male teachers who are simply TERRIFIC. They do not yell at the children. They do not make them cry. I'm not sure what bad experience you've had, but this is a gross overgeneralization. And from personal experience, the only teacher who EVER yelled at either of my children was an older female teacher who happened to be a grandmother (she yelled constantly...there was always a target in her classes). Personally I think that the main reason that more men don't enter education is that the starting pay for teachers just out of college is not as high as in other professions. AND another thing that tends to happen, many men do not remain in the classroom. They get administrative certification and move on. Our teacher programs in this state do not discriminate against men, in fact encourage them to enroll.</p>
<p>Actually the teacher I saw who yelled the most ( which was unfortunately quite a bit) was a young woman who was pregnant with her first child. It was pretty close to her due date, and I imagine she was very tired and wanted to put her feet up, but it really seemed to negatively affect her patience.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Your suggestion that men are inferior to women in their ability to excel as elementary teachers is more than an example of personal sexism, it is a clue to why men have not been more fully accepted and integrated into the tenured faculty at elementary school since you have been in power.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The above is how the NOW President responded to Harvard President Summer when she demanded his resignation. I changed a few words to make it parallel. If the NOW President is right in her comments about the Harvard President, is her revised quote also right when it is made to address male elementary teachers?</p>
<p>Give me a break. Men are not discriminated against in this field...They are gobbled up and hired if they apply for a job! They just arent applying for the jobs because there is no money in it or it just doesnt appeal to them.
AND when they do get the jobs..many set their sites on getting out of it and into administration.</p>
<p>Surely NJres was joking. At least that"s how I read the post.</p>
<p>thats how I read it too, thats why I responded with my humorous with a grain of truth to it list :)
Actually my younger daughters school has several very good elementary school teachers, but an interesting thing I have noticed that in all ( K-12)of the schools that my kids have been in, the science and often the math depts are dominated by women. (in college the ratio is reversed and the science profs are not only mostly men, but they are named Steve)</p>
<p>Men aren't discriminated against in this field. Men are welcomed into this field. In fact, men would be tipped in for admissions, merit aid, jobs, etc. It's similar to the nursing field, which has a shortage of males.</p>
<p>Men aren't in this field because it is low paying and is low status. In general, men prefer to go to better paying fields. There also are not that many men who are interested in working with little kids or even with kids at the secondary school level.</p>
<p>When my husband went back to college 14 years ago to get his teaching certificate, I encouraged him to get an elementary certificate - he is the most active, engaged Dad most of our friends know, and at that time was deeply involved with babies, my younger child crawled around his graduation. His arguments were that it would take longer (which was true, as he was retraining), that he wasn't creative enough (he did develop a distaste for laminators and bulletin boards during his teacher training) and that he would feel fine with the kids, but uncomfortable around the other teachers, being overwhelmingly female, and uncomfortable around the parents. He teaches high school science, so a couple of his co-workers are male, he enjoys their camaraderie, as well as his female buddy who (lest you think him totally sexist) we have socialized with outside of school. He honestly was worried about people assuming the worst if he became an elementary school teacher, and as things have progressed in our community, I'm sorry to say I think he made the right decision. My daughter had one male elementary teacher who was OK, and a couple of excellent male middle school teachers.</p>
<p>My kiddos both had the same male sixth grade teacher in elementary school. Except for DDs first grade teacher (who was OUTSTANDING) this male teacher was the best my kids ever had in elementary school. He was kind, understanding, and somehow managed to know each youngster on an individual level. And no...he didn't run his sixth grade like junior high...he ran it like a grade school classroom. It was wonderful. My kids still talk about him and all the wonderful times they had in his class.</p>