January, 2008

Arthur Brokop, a young substitute teacher, shut the windowless door of the first-grade classroom he'd been called in to oversee.

He dimmed the lights while showing a video and, one by one, put three young girls on his lap so he could fondle them through their clothing.

The crime still haunts the school superintendent in this town surrounded by oil fields and the rugged high desert of northwestern New Mexico.

Workforce Participation Minister Sharman Stone says more than half of Federal politicians should be women.

And she says more men should be working in child care.

In the second National Press Club debate of the election campaign, two prominent female politicians went head-to-head today on women's issues.

Opposition women's spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek has taken on Dr Stone one of only three women in the coalition ministry.

Ms Plibersek says the Labor side of politics is far more gender-balanced with almost 40 per cent of the caucus women.

When the students that Kingsley Bennett tutors found out he was going to intern at their school, Eagle's Nest Elementary in southwest Orlando, they were so excited that there were high-fives all around.

Bennett is a senior elementary-education major in UCF's College of Education.

"In elementary school, where children learn the basics, there are few men," he said. "In many families there isn't a male role model."

A Special "New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Men" was appointed to conduct a study on the subject.

The New Hamphshire official website http://www.nh.gov published the study on status of men (in following link), which can be considered to be applicable to men in western world and also men in fast growing economies.

http://www.nh.gov/csm/downloads/nh_status_of_men_2005.pdf

Some of my best friends are men. More importantly, some of my best teacher friends--sounding boards, inspirations and educational soul mates--are men. But men are a diminishing force in teaching, a distinct cause for alarm when you consider that half the pool of prospective teachers is men.