<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>