Real men teach kids

"Fewer Male Instructors Now Entering the City Public School Service" read a headline in The New York Times in March of 1912. Its first paragraph stated: "There is unmistakably a scarcity of men among the teachers recently appointed, or to be more accurate, among those who have accepted appointment. The explanation is simple -- men are unwilling to accept the initial salary, $720 a year, now paid in the elementary schools."

Fast-forward nearly a century, tack on a pay raise of at least another $40,000 to start and yet variations on the same story continue to appear in newspapers around the U.S.A. National Education Association study completed in 2003 found that 24.9 percent of our nation's teachers are male, and that figure drops to 9 percent when only elementary school teachers are counted. (Men accounted for 35 percent of secondary school teachers.)

Fewer than 9 percent of my son's elementary school teachers were men. In fact, all of his teachers from pre-K through grade 5 were female, with the exception of his physical education teacher. In middle school, the gender gap narrowed a bit. My son is from an intact family and has a close relationship with a very loving and attentive father.

However, I believe learning from those men gave him additional role models and ideas about what it can look like to be a knowledgeable, organized, creative, firm, sensitive and funny kind of guy. Although a recent brief by Shaun Johnson (Center for Education and Evaluation Policy, Winter 2008) says it is not clear that the gender of a teacher influences students, I know that in middle school, all of Jake's favorite teachers were male.

Usually, what he liked about them was the way they kidded around with him, sometimes teasing him -- not enough to offend, but just enough to make him feel like "one of the guys," modeling what Johnson refers to as a "healthy type of masculinity."

Could Jake have received the same education if his teachers were exclusively female? I don't doubt it, but I would hate for him to have been deprived of teachers "who look like him," the same way many of my minority students never see a teacher who shares their background.

I think it is important for children to know they can learn and grow when they are led by teachers of both sexes and all backgrounds. The world is a diverse place and having only one type of teacher doesn't reflect the larger reality. Boys and girls benefit from having male teachers.

While many of our students may view their female teachers as surrogate mothers, usually there is a mother at home. Our male colleagues may be the only influential or caring men in some students' lives. Yet, their numbers are decreasing.

What is keeping men out of the classroom? Johnson writes: "Teaching's association with care, nurturance and domesticity firmly places the profession outside the normative boundaries of what are acceptable masculine practices.

Challenging such boundaries leads to negative scrutiny within larger society, and many men are therefore reluctant to work with children." How sad is that?

Other factors keeping men away from the classroom included the perceived lack of prestige and the pay. In fact, even men who become educators are susceptible to the lure of the administrative degree with its increased compensation and prestige. So many very good male teachers leave the classroom, in spite of their competence and success.

To all my male colleagues and to those men considering a career in teaching: This is a rewarding and wonderful profession. It is hard work and intellectually challenging, yet the salary is not bad -- certainly, many men have jobs making less -- and the intangibles are exceptional. Seeing a concept "click" for a child as a result of your efforts is an addictive experience. Stay in the classroom. Real men teach kids.

February 27, 2009

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Follow up comments

Reflections of a retred male teacher
I read with interest the Point of View expressed by Jane Weinkrantz as I am a retired male elementary teacher (grades 2-6 over the years).

While an elementary teacher, I was always in the minority - sometimes at a 15-to-1 ratio. On the humorous side, I once "sued" two female teachers for commenting on my physique. It was "settled out of court" for two Baby Ruth candy bars.

As a boy growing up without a father, I was fortunate in having male elementary teachers for grades 4-6: Mr. Moskowitz (PS 169), Mr. Silver and Mr. Vinci (PS 152).

Alvin Reiner
Received via e-mail

Once upon a time only males taught
Thank you for featuring the article "Real Men Teach Kids" by Jane Weinkrantz.

In her commentary, Weinkrantz made reference to a briefing where the researcher inferred that because children and education are associated with nurture, care and domestication, they are culturally deemed outside the boundaries of masculinity in so much that men do not feel they belong in the profession.

It will be pointed out here that this is an evolved perspective that has moved to the opposite extreme from where formal education began. Centuries ago, only men were allowed to be teachers, and only boys were allowed to attend school. Education was the private domain of privileged males. As it stands now, females and female educational philosophies dominate the field.

In teacher training programs, traditional methods of teaching and learning - such as teacher-lead instructions, standardized testing and academic competition, which were attributed to a male outlook - gave in to ideas such as student-centered learning, inquiry-based instructions, whole language acquisition and authentic assessment, female-oriented philosophies.

While preparing for the field, I remember that you could fail a course in college simply by upholding a traditional method of teaching. The mere mention of standardized testing is a battle cry for war against social and academic injustice.

The small number of male teaching candidates who do plan to go into teaching has to endure listening silently to tales of educational injustices in reverse discriminating courses of teaching and learning.

As a minority female, it is expected that I would be in favor of ideas that will rescue me out of lifelong repression, but nothing but the contrary is true if I never felt I was in any state of disadvantage.

As it is, the extent to which female educational philosophies have gone excludes ideas traditionally favored by men. Is it any wonder why there are so few men in the field?

Men can teach children very well. They won't hesitate to coach the little leagues of any sport, nor will they think it is too early to introduce their grade school daughters to the Wall Street Journal. It is the ultimate irony that in a profession that tries to promote diversity, it does not see its own prejudice.

L.A. Le
Brooklyn

Men will teach if given opportunity
Jane Weinkrantz, in her Point of View, notes that only 9 percent of elementary teachers in this country are male. She points to equity issues when she says it is important for children to know they can learn and grow when they are led by teachers of both sexes and all backgrounds. Ms. Weinkrantz goes on to state that the roles of nurturer, care-givers and domestics conflict with typical male roles. Also, prestige and compensation may be important to men's decisions to avoid teaching young children.

As a male kindergarten teacher with more than 30 years of experience in early childhood classrooms, I would like to present a different perspective on gender and the teaching force. Rather than examining the reasons for staying away from the profession, I'd like to pose the question: "Why should males become early childhood teachers?"

When we look at the profession we see very few males, thus there are few role models for boys to emulate. Thus many boys don't even recognize that teaching young children is an option for them. Is there a way out of this conundrum? I believe so.

It was in ninth grade that I made the firm determination to become a teacher. The mental image that I created was of me as a high school or college teacher of English. After successfully completing my college preparation, I was asked to fill in for a kindergarten teacher who was ill.

My life was changed as I recognized the roles that I would take on and as I understood that I had the makings of a competent teacher of young children.

Before I found myself in that classroom I had no mental picture that I could access of myself as nurturer or as teacher of young children. I propose that we do what we can to help young men to develop such mental pictures.

Here is one possibility: What if we presented each young man and woman with the requirement that they spend a minimum of five days in a pre-school or kindergarten classroom? I have seen and read of remarkable transformations that have taken place when teenagers are given this opportunity.

In this setting, young men may experience the role of nurturer for the first time in their lives. Others may simply get validation for the care that they give to the youngsters.

In either case, the adolescents will have the opportunity to see the role of teacher of young children in a very personal way.

I submit that this exposure would do more for young men than open up the field of early childhood teaching to them. Ms. Weinkrantz has remarked that "nurturer" is a role that is outside of our normative expectations for men. But men have the capacity to nurture; they simply need the occasion to do so.

It is important for us to provide this chance for them before they become parents. There is more than one way to get young men involved with our youngest students, but I believe we must begin finding opportunities for young men to experience the roles of nurturer and care-giver within the framework of our schools.

Eric Gidseg
Arlington Central School District

Male teachers may be stereotyped
I believe it is true that men and women often have different methods and ways of teaching.

In my experience, I think being a male has allowed me to reach out to some students who may not have been able to be reached by a female. I'm sure the reverse also may be true in many cases.

In my experience, I've found that while men may lack an interest in teaching due to lack of money, etc., I believe men are often stereotyped. I believe many administrators may see men as the teacher of the "troublemakers" and "difficult students."

While men may be able to deal a bit better with these types, it is unfair to constantly place this burden on them.

Always teaching these types may create eventual burnout and disinterest in males toward teaching. This may be another reason why males leave the field.

Men are more that just a disciplinarian, and can offer unique perspectives and connections to students - not just to the troubled students, but to all students.

I also believe that because males and females may have different approaches to teaching, this has led to males often being passed over for teaching jobs.

Scott Cipolla
Mt. Morris

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