News

Students explore urban teaching - young men teach

Bryan G Nelson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

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by Nick Pipitone - Philidelphia, PA Inquirer Staff Writer

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Marquise Cottman knows he wants to become a teacher, but not just anywhere.

His dream is to help students who have to overcome the challenges of growing up in an inner-city neighborhood, like the one he was raised in just blocks from Temple University in North Philadelphia.

Cottman, 17, took his first step on that path this summer, as one of 32 high school juniors taking part in the inaugural Pennsylvania Governor's School for Urban Teaching, a full-scholarship residential program designed to encourage students to become teachers in city schools.

The "govies," as they call themselves, helped to run a literacy program for students in third through eighth grades at the Tanner Duckrey School, 1501 W. Diamond St.

Cottman knew he was especially qualified for the role.

"I look at [the students] and I see how I acted when I was a child," said Cottman, who is entering his senior year at the Philadelphia Military Academy at Elverson. "So I just take them outside and talk to them, calm them down, and bring them back in."

The $350,000 funding for the five-week program, which ends Saturday, was sponsored by State Rep. James Roebuck (D., Phila.), who chairs the House Education Committee. He wanted to add an urban-education school modeled after the Governor's School for Teaching at Millersville University to address the "reoccurring problem" of attracting students to teach in cities.

"I think it's part perception, but there's certainly an art to being a good urban teacher," Roebuck said.

It's an art that fewer and fewer have been attracted to in Philadelphia and other urban centers in Pennsylvania over the last eight to 10 years, said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. "Even though it may be challenging," Jordan said, "it really is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have."

The govies got a small dose of what city teaching could be like. In the morning, they helped teach reading and writing, and at noon, they became the students - listening to lectures from Temple professors on becoming a teacher, and the complexities of school reform and teaching in urban schools.

Along with biweekly speakers and the occasional community-service project on weekends, the program did not leave much time for recreation. "It's been crazy because we always have a lot of stuff to do," said Leah Freilich, 17, of the Somerton section of Northeast Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania has nine governor's schools that cover various topics across the state. There are more than 50 similar programs in as many as 20 states, according to the National Conference of Governor's Schools.

The first program in Pennsylvania was the Governor's School for the Arts, created in 1973. The concept had begun 10 years earlier in North Carolina.

The newest Temple program got off to a late start because funding didn't come through until January. Temple will look to double the number of spots next summer and draw applicants from across the state.

For most of the students, the highlight of their summer here was becoming a role model for the younger students.

During a class last week, Lethaniel Norton, 17, of Strawberry Mansion, circled a desk of fifth-grade students, helping them spell words in a crossword puzzle and promising Jolly Ranchers candy to the one who finished first. If students could identify the picture, but couldn't spell the word, Norton would answer their requests for help with "Would you like a dictionary?" while toting one under his arm.

The 75 children who came from North Philadelphia schools clung to the govies. As her classmates gathered at the door for a recent art class, one of Norton's students, Tammy Cole, 10, stayed behind with him and Freilich until they left.

Folding a piece of bright green paper at her desk, Tammy said her favorite part of the class was writing a biography about Freilich, her favorite teacher.

"I wrote all about her life. She likes to ride horses, and she likes to read a lot," Tammy said. "Also, she doesn't like to eat onions - like me. They're nasty."

The program would like to recruit more minority students from cities so they can better relate to the students, said Heidi Ramirez, director of Temple's Urban Education Collaborative, who oversees the governor's school.

While roughly 87 percent of students in the district are minorities, the figure is just 34.4 percent for teachers, according to 2008 district data.

Cottman, who is black, said there needs to be more black male teachers, especially in urban schools. "There's not that many African American male teachers," he said. If the students see him teaching, "they may say, 'I can actually make it out of North Philadelphia.' "

Though the teaching at Tanner Duckrey School was in a controlled environment, Ramirez said the govies got an "incredibly authentic experience of urban schools" through the classes and speakers and their interaction with the students and the community.

"We're not painting rosy pictures," said Ramirez, a member of the School Reform Commission, which oversees the Philadelphia schools. "I don't think everyone is meant to be a teacher, and I don't think everyone is meant to be in an urban classroom."

Jeff Tomczyk, for one, is considering teaching in an urban school now that he has seen the potential to help.

"Being here with these kids, it's really different than from where I'm from," said Tomczyk, 17, of Exeter Township outside of Reading. "I think I'm going to be more of an urban schoolteacher now because I want to help these kids . . . get out, get an education, get them to college, get a job, and help them get out of their struggles."

July. 31, 2008

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The energy of young male teachers

Bryan G Nelson — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

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Betrayal of boys: A new report says white boys need father figures at school. But the male education crisis is far more complex

Bryan G Nelson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

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by Martin Newland

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Any parent will recognise Peter Smith's assessment of the boys he teaches at Hampton School in south-west London: 'Boys are like greyhounds. They love the chase and the race, and they don't care if the prize is a fake rabbit.'

Mr Smith had invited me into one of his English classes at this single-sex private secondary school to illustrate the point.

The boys, aged 13 and 14, were set against each other in a timed test involving the rearranging of jumbled lines from Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet. The prize for the first one to achieve this was a blackberry-flavoured cough sweet.

Noisy consultation ensued as Mr Smith walked around the class, giving clues, egging on pupils and calling out the time remaining. He stopped by my desk: 'It is noisy and messy looking, but they are engaged because they are competing. They are not sitting there listening to me preach at them.'

Mr Smith, in his 50s, had spent years teaching in the state system before coming to Hampton. He has seen the way boys are being let down by the education system.

It is a view which is being heard time and again, from suburban dinner tables to the highest realms of academia. There have been several recent reports of boys failing in schools - a crisis which threatens to create an unemployable generation.

This week, Ofsted inspectors called for more father figures in schools because so many boys do not have a male role model in their family. But the number of male head teachers in state schools has fallen in a decade from 50 per cent to 39per cent.

'It's crucial we get effective role models for the next generation. Male heads can help provide authority figures for children who desperately need boundaries and leadership,' says Tory education spokesman Michael Gove.

There are several other factors which work against boys succeeding in the education system. At the heart of the problem is a failure to accept a simple truth: boys and girls have differing aptitudes and needs at school.

Peter Smith used to teach at a comprehensive that decided to separate the sexes because the boys' progress had been 'very slow'.

'In the girls' class, I felt superfluous,' he told me. 'The girls knew what they had to do and ploughed through the text methodically.

'In the boys' class, I became the leader of the wolf pack. I was asked about everything. Away from the girls, the boys wanted competition and movement. To tell a girl to sit down and write is one thing; to expect a boy to do this is another.'
Showing off

When children were taught together, boys were distracted by the need to show off and were embarrassed to ask for help

In short, boys and girls see things differently, learn differently and respond differently. This is obvious to parents, but apparently a mystery to the architects and stewards of our education system.

The problem is apparent at third level. A government report last week found that while women were in a minority in universities in 1992, by last year the proportion of male undergraduates had fallen to 35 per cent.

Women get more Firsts, debunking the theory that men are risk-taking high-fliers who get the top grades.

So how did it come to this? There is the fact that teaching is becoming an all-female profession.

Research shows women outnumbering men by 13 to one in some areas. One in ten primary schools has no male teachers. In some areas, fewer than 10 per cent of primary teachers are men.

Figures from the most recent teacher-training intake show there are 26,217 women compared to just 9,375 men. At primary level, the difference is more marked, with 2,301 men compared to 14,183 women.

The lack of males in primary schools is thought to be having a serious effect on boys, because of the number of family break-ups with the mother left 'holding the baby'.

'If boys don't have fathers, they look to the school for male role models,' says Professor John Howson, an education expert and former government adviser on teacher supply.

'If they have no male role model at school, then they look to other boys and violent characters on TV.'

Over-zealous child protection laws have discouraged men from working with children.

'The only adults pictured holding the hands of young boys today are Premiership footballers as they emerge from the tunnel,' says Professor Howson. A survey by the Training and Development Agency for Schools found that half of children have no contact with male teachers between the ages of five and 11, despite a clear parental preference - 75 per cent - to have men as well as women teachers.

Allied to this problem of a lack of male role models in schools is the details of what boys are taught.

Many would argue that the main cause of their under-achievement is the feminised curriculum and exam system, with its concentration on assessment and coursework (which tends to favour girls), at the expense of fact-based learning and sudden death exams (which favours boys).

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education at Buckingham University, says a premium is placed on methodical, consistent application, at which girls excel, rather than the competition and risk taking for which boys have a biological programming.

Curriculum content has changed, too. Learning dates and the figures behind the Reformation in Britain, for example, has been replaced by learning, or guessing, what people in that age may have 'felt'.

Social issues such as sexism, disability, ethnicity and poverty are given equal billing to facts, arguments and the achievements of great men and women.

My four-year-old son returned home recently with a book about dogs and cats. On the last page we are introduced to the owner of the pets - an Asian girl in a wheelchair.

A story about reading, counting and animals is thus transformed into one about minorities and disability. This might be socially inclusive, but is it the best way of learning to read?
Uninspiring

Another turn-off, many teachers have told me, is the dullness of the curriculum, partly through its subjugation to political correctness. One English teacher said that much of the set poetry is uninspiring in its worthiness.

Contemporary poetry might be politically correct, he said, but it does little to fire the imagination of boys who react better to Tennyson's The Charge Of The Light Brigade or the World War I poets.

Ann Newstead, 36, couldn't agree more. She became so disillusioned with the education of her 11-year-old son Josh that she took him out of the state system and began teaching him - and his brothers Sam, nine, and William, four - at their home in Orpington, Kent.

'Josh didn't want to read because the books he was given at seven or eight were aimed at girls,' she says.

'He didn't want to read about Mary and Mo going to the shops; he wanted books about steam engines and space - subjects which really interest him.

'If they gave boys books about football players, they'd be far more switched on. Josh, like so many boys, was being alienated from education.'

Why has the curriculum been taken so far in the other direction?

'In the Eighties, the priority was to make schools girl-friendly,' says Professor James Tooley of Newcastle University, author of The Miseducation Of Women.

'And none of the feminists cared a fig about the effects these changes to the curriculum and ethos of schools might have on boys, who, it was thought, would be happy with whatever changes were brought in to help their disadvantaged and deprived sisters.'

The sweeping changes to the curriculum began to hit home in 2000, when girls pulled off the hat trick of out-performing boys in GCSEs, A-levels and at university.

Two years ago, 53 per cent of boys achieved at least five good GCSEs, compared with 63 per cent of girls.

Boys make up a majority of the 20 per cent of pupils who can't read properly by the age of 11, and research shows they are likely to fall further behind by the age of 16.

Here, too, part of the problem is a simple failure to accept that the sexes are different. One teacher in the state system, who declined to be named, said the Government's target-driven obsession requires boys to learn to write at five, before their fine motor skills are advanced enough to hold a pencil.

'The difference is that if a boy can't hold a pencil, he gives up, exasperated, and is reluctant to revisit this area of failure. If a girl has trouble, it's hardwired into her mindset to persevere until she gets it right.'

It's something barrister Annabel Goldman, 35, has seen with her son Reuben, now 11.

'Boys are different from girls, and you have to accept that,' she says. 'Reuben is a bright, normal boy, but when he was five I was called in to see his head because he had been given detention.

'His crime? He was making frog noises when all the children had to sit and listen to a story. He could not physically sit still. So he got in trouble.'

This brings us to what I believe is the other major cause of boys failing in school: the loss of a rigorous and demanding sporting life.

Sport encourages competitiveness and, perhaps more importantly, teaches young men how to lose as well as how to win.

Despite government efforts at regulation, school playing fields are being sold off at an alarming rate - as many as 500 a year - and it is increasingly rare for pupils to fulfil the minimum requirement for sporting activity: two hours a week.

Many sporting activities are remodelled so taking part is seen as more important than winning.

At one sports day, my son was presented with a rosette that read 'Participant'. I would have preferred it if he had been made to come to terms with the fact that he had come last in a race.

Biologically, boys are designed to run and play. Males have larger hearts and a biological predisposition, in tune with the hunter gatherer instinct, towards flooding themselves with adrenaline, which then has to be worked off.

Joanne Fowler, 39, was so horrified at the lack of sport as well as the lax discipline at the state school her 12-year-old son Michael was destined to attend in Warrington, Cheshire, that she placed him in the private sector.

'There was no competitive sport at his state school, but at The Grange independent school there's so much. They play football, rugby or cricket every day and he is desperate to join the school rowing team,' she says.

'The difference is in the motivation: there are many inspirational male teachers and he really looks up to them. The children have such a good relationship with the staff. Discipline is strong, but there's no shouting; they are controlled with humour and intelligence.'
Letting off steam

Given that boys make up the bulk of students with disciplinary problems - 80 per cent of excluded pupils are boys - it is strange that the system deprives male students of the chance to let off steam on the sports field.

School trips geared towards adventure and physical challenges are less common, thanks to increased safety regulations and the growing compensation culture.

That fear of risk and the desire to wrap children in cotton wool have dismayed Annabel Goldman.

'At six, boys have a testosterone rush and they want to roar and tumble like lion cubs,' she says.

'My son Reuben was always being told off, believe it or not, for "running in the playground". Apparently, it was against health and safety rules. If it was even just spitting with rain, they weren't allowed out, so all the boys had this raging energy they needed to get rid of. His state primary school offered one hour of PE a week: what good was that?'

Is there any prospect of the Government addressing how boys are educated?

Earlier this year, a government review headed by the head of the education watchdog Ofsted called for urgent action to tackle boys' underachievement.

In a departure from the past, the report recognised that girls and boys approach schoolwork in fundamentally different ways.

The report recommended that teachers should use more active methods to help boys learn to read, and that tests needed to be made more competitive, with sports coach- style feedback where the teacher tells a student precisely where he has gone wrong.

At least this is a sign that the differences between boys and girls are at last being recognised by the architects of the education system.

Unless schools start changing the way they teach boys, our education system might achieve what the shriller element of the feminist movement was unable to: a move beyond equality of the sexes to the marginalisation of men.

July 24, 2008

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Blokes can do it as well

Bryan G Nelson — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

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by Craig d'Arcy, facilitator of the Newcastle Males in Early Childhood Network Group

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Craig d'Arcy, facilitator of the Newcastle Males in Early Childhood Network Group, discusses the barriers that men often face in early childhood and why it's crucial we work to remove these obstacles.

Early childhood carers and educators strive to avoid stereotypes and ensure that all children are presented with healthy and diverse messages about gender identity - through the language we use, the images we portray, the environment we maintain, the diverse experiences we implement and the interactions we engage in at our services.

All of us aim to provide both boys and girls with opportunities to explore their own meaning of what it is to be male or female and to carry this into adulthood.

Male staff and volunteers in children's services are the essential missing ingredient from these valuable ideals - particularly in Australia, where they make up only about two per cent of early childhood staff.

Typical barriers for men in the early childhood sector include:

* negative community attitudes, including the fear of being accused of abusing children
* an extremely low number of other men in the profession and hence a lack of inspiring role models
* studying or working in isolation from other men
* community perceptions that working in children's services is little more than babysitting, thus also contributing to low pay and poor working conditions
* not being effectively recruited, supported or retained when students or workers
* often being seen as a token or novelty, noticed because of their gender, not their skills or qualifications.

Strengths that men provide

Men have something to offer which is different to what females offer young children. When men and women are working together in teams, children's experiences are enhanced.

Traditional arguments for increased male involvement centre on:

* the developmental needs of children
* the positive ways that male staff can model relationships
* the possible benefits to fathers
* men adding their voices in calling for better working conditions and wages in children's services.

Many of the reasons for men entering the profession are the same as their female colleagues, but a lot of men who choose this non-traditional career often have further experiences and skills that they wish to contribute.

Michael is a teacher in a long day care service who says he became motivated after having children of his own and wanting to show others, including fathers, that men can take on caring and nurturing roles:

'I have been a strapper and a meat processing worker but I like the idea of being a pioneer. I like to push the boundaries and do physical activities with the boys and girls that they wouldn't normally do. I also felt that I could help provide a positive and stable male role model that many children in my local area are lacking.'

Building awareness

Reflecting the increasing interest in the roles of men and women in the profession, a working forum on men in early childhood education was held in May 2008 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The working forum is a World Forum project to create a global meeting place to identify actions and promote men's participation worldwide. Early Childhood Australia is a member of the World Forum Alliance.

You can find out more about the forum at: www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/projects/men_ece/

Supporting men in early childhood

The bottom line in our work is that we aim to promote the wellbeing of all children. In order to do so we need to recognise that men are essential in early childhood services - and that blokes can do it as well.

Craig d'Arcy
Facilitator
Males in Early Childhood Network Group

References and further reading

Hamilton, K. (2003). 'Daddy Daycare': What's keeping men from a career in early childhood? Rattler, 68, 6-8.

Sargent, P. (2004). Between a rock and a hard place: Men caught in the gender bind of early childhood education. The Journal of Men's Studies, 12(3), 173-193.

Males in Early Childhood Network Group (2006, 8-9 July). Workshop on the benefits of male involvement in early childhood services. Participant comments at the Males in Early Childhood Summit, East Maitland, NSW.

March 2, 2008

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Childcare: the last gender barrier to break

Bryan G Nelson — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Author:

by Linda Summerhayes - Edinburgh, Scotland

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It's a woman's world, to misquote the famous song. While gender barriers are being broken down in almost all walks of life, attitudes about childcare have not been so quick to follow.

All too often eyebrows are still raised when men choose to make a career working with and nurturing children, but there are signs that things are beginning to change, especially in the Capital.

Across the UK as a whole, just two per cent of childcare professionals are men – a situation that has raised recent concern among MPs at Westminster.

In Edinburgh, the proportion is far higher – 12 per cent.

With so many of them delighted by their career choice, hopes are high that the trend will continue.

The work of the city-based Men In Childcare campaign has been credited with spurring a significant shift in the Capital – an increase of 11 per cent in men choosing such a career in seven years.

Its men-only foundation courses are aimed at getting over the fears of those disconcerted by large classes of women, and, since its launch in 2000, MIC has helped around 1000 men from all over the UK into childcare training.

It has been so successful, it is about to expand its services to Glasgow, and its representatives are invited to speak at childcare conferences all over the world.

Meet three men who defied convention to take up jobs in childcare.

SIMON FLOCKHART, 28, AFTER SCHOOL CLUB MANAGER
TO the children who attend the after school club he manages, Simon Flockhart is known as the BFG, or Big Friendly Giant. And no wonder – at 6ft 9in, the good natured Edinburgh man towers above the kids he cares for.

It's a label he clearly enjoys. "When I tell people what I do for a living, it can be a real icebreaker," he smiles. "Sometimes it's met with shock but I think people are intrigued because they don't expect a male, especially a young male, to be working with children."

It's also a job that can also be a winner with the ladies, with many cooing the word "ah" when they hear what the 28-year-old does for a living.

But there is very much a serious side to the work he does as it is Simon's aim to help the children who regularly attend the club at St John Vianney RC Primary School in Gilmerton to try new skills. Given his height, it's perhaps no surprise to find that Simon is a renowned basketball player who competes for national champions The Kings. He also plays for Scotland and will take part in a European competition in June.

A graduate with a diploma in sports coaching, he uses that experience at the after school club, and runs an under-14s basketball team at Portobello High School.

But while his career in childcare has gone from strength to strength, it is one that emerged almost by accident after he was unable to secure work as a coach. Instead he answered an advert for the after school club manager.

"When I decided to give it a go, I thought it would just be until I could get a job on a sports field but it's just so much fun," he says.

"The children can be challenging and certainly keep you on your toes but it's so rewarding working with them and seeing how they progress when they are introduced to new experiences. It helps them socially as well – the interaction with other children and adults at the club."

Simon's alter ego is DJ Stretch, and he holds a residency at Club Massa on Market Street. His work at the after school club fits in with this as it means he often starts work later in the day.

His employers, Childcare Connection, paid for Simon's training and he is now studying for his PDA in Early Education and Childcare at the Jewel and Esk Valley College where tutors have reported an unprecedented rise in the numbers of men studying childcare.

While he welcomes the rising numbers of men who are entering into the profession, he admits it is still a woman's world – his only male colleagues are the headteacher and the janitor.

He adds: As it's such a female-dominated job, it doesn't occur to men to make childcare their first choice, but I think most people would find it rewarding."

NICK TIMOTHEOU, 35, LEARNING ASSISTANT
WHEN Nick Timotheou was invited into a classroom as a volunteer, the last thing he expected was to discover his vocation.

The talented musician had endured a string of day jobs that he had no interest in, so when his teacher friend said she thought he might enjoy volunteering as an assistant in her classroom, he thought he had nothing to lose.

"From the start, I just loved it," he recalls. "It's a hectic and demanding job, both mentally and physically, but it's a lovely environment to work in and it's really rewarding."

After working at two mainstream schools in London, Nick and his wife Susan decided to move north and three and a half years ago he started work at the Kingsinch Special Needs School in Edinburgh.

"I'd never worked with special needs children before but now I prefer it to working in a mainstream school," says Nick, of Dalkeith.

"It's more rewarding and, although at the end of the day you will be tired, you feel as though you've done something worthwhile. These are vulnerable children and you form a strong bond with them."

While Nick, who is studying part time for a HNC in Early Education and Childcare, often works on a one-to-one basis with an autistic child at the school, he also has the opportunity to put his talent for music to good use and he organises special music classes.

While everyone he has met has been positive about his career choice, he's aware of the stigma surrounding men in childcare.

"It's very much in the back of my mind when I do meet parents – I feel like I have to show them that I am responsible," he says.

"While it's not really fair, it is just the way society is and I do understand.

"I do have to take more care and make sure I am careful not to be left in the room on my own with certain pupils. You do have to keep your wits about you so you are not put in a vulnerable position."

He adds: "I have worked with some children who have only had a bad male role model or who have had no male role models at all and so it's at the forefront of your mind that you could have a positive impact on them.

"When you first come across these children, they are suspicious but when you break that barrier down, it's a really rewarding job."

STEVEN WILSON, 18, CHILDCARE STUDENT
STEVEN Wilson's decision to take up a full-time NC course in Early Education and Childcare at Jewel and Esk Valley College raised a few eyebrows among his friends.

Yet having always looked out for his neighbour's children, taking up a career in childcare was a natural move for him.

Since taking up the course, the 18-year-old has completed a four month placement at the nursery school at Liberton Primary, and he is currently working with youngsters at Towerbank Primary.

"I love interacting with the kids and I really enjoy it when they've learned something," says Steven. "Of course, I really want them to have a laugh and enjoy the experience too."

Steven says he was initially daunted about being the only male in a class of more than 20 girls but now he's become accustomed to their banter he's more than happy with the situation. He says: "At first I was really nervous but now we just have a laugh."

Steven's most challenging situation so far has been learning how to cope with a child who has suspected autism.

"One minute she was really enjoying the activities and the next minute she was telling me she hates me," he recalls.

"But now I know not to take it personally because eventually she goes back into a good mood."

March 11, 2008

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