Did you know teaching is one of the oldest and most powerful careers in the world?
Did you know teaching is one of the oldest and most powerful careers in the world?
Each year, South Main Street Elementary School gathers its students for a special assembly celebrating both poetry and the male members of its teaching staff.
There are twice as many students of color, by percentage, as teachers of color in Virginia's public schools. What's more, the Commonwealth has the fewest male teachers, proportionately, of any state in the U.S.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most turbulent and transformative years in American history. While 2018 may seem chaotic, those old enough to remember know that 1968 found us a nation divided on many fronts. As the war in Vietnam raged on, protests at home reached a fever pitch, and the powder keg of America’s urban centers — long ignored or forgotten — ignited following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 
The teaching profession in America remains largely white and female. That means young African American males can go through school without ever seeing a teacher who looks like them.
My day started like any other. I got up early and had breakfast. My girlfriend, who is now my wife, drove me to work.
African-American boys make up a significant percentage of Detroit Public Schools Community District’s student enrollment but large numbers of them aren’t taught by black men.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as I dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt and prepared to attend my first day of orientation as a pre-K teacher of 3- and 4-year-olds. I walked through the school doors for the first time, taken aback by the miniature size of the furniture I saw as I peeked into an empty classroom. I wasn’t the only one in for a surprise. 
Dubois County doesn’t have many male elementary school teachers — a reality that is common throughout the country.
It’s only the second month of school and Ernesto has already cussed me out several times. He learned to protect himself in the school of hard knocks, where daily lessons involve neglect, abuse, and distrust from the adults in his life. His father left him when he was young, and his mother worked multiple jobs to support him and his younger brother. Underneath the tough exterior, however, I know there is a great 12-year-old kid. 
As the country celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week, I'm grateful for the Black male educators in our low-income communities. They inspired me as a child and shaped my career path and they do the same for some many Milwaukee children. 
For 35 years, Len Saunders has been teaching physical education to elementary school children in Montville, N.J. Personally, he knows how important a strong male role model can be and hopes he is that for his students. His own father died just months before he was born, so he depended on uncles, coaches and other men to guide him in certain areas of his physical and mental development. 
Anytime I tell people that I am majoring in social studies education, they ask one of two questions: “Where do you want to teach?” or “Why do you want to teach?” Those especially curious ask both. My answer is consistent: I would like to teach in a secondary school serving predominantly low-income, African American students. And I am entering the profession as an intentional form of activism. 
Men and women tend to choose different career paths, and researchers have identified this as the biggest reason men make more money. So if men and women were equally represented across all occupations, would it close that gender pay gap?
Training for the profession of teaching, even in 1971, was not the easiest major to enter at Michigan State. When I transferred from Central Michigan as a junior, I was headed into secondary education, as I mentioned in my initial blog entry. After the first term, I decided to switch my major to elementary after several conversations with my oldest brother and his wife, both of whom were teachers. 
At Turner Elementary School in Southeast D.C., Torren Cooper is the only male of color who works directly in the classroom, even though the student body is 98 percent African American. Cooper is a literacy coach helping some of Turner’s youngest pupils with their reading and writing skills, including rhyming, alliteration, letter sounds and writing their names.
Travis Bristol is an assistant professor in English education at the Boston University School of Education who researches district- and school-based practices that support teachers of color; national, state and local education policies that enable and constrain the workplace experiences and retention for teachers of color; the intersection of race and gender in schools.
A passion for teaching and learning is what drew Archie Moss to a career in education. But the Memphis principal recalls how he almost left the profession when he found himself increasingly tasked as a disciplinarian.
Stephen Flemming is one teacher in one classroom, but he may be doing as much to keep his low-income black students in school – black males in particular – as any formal program targeted toward "at-risk" students.
UDY WOODRUFF: A question that has been raised here: Why aren’t more men going into fields dominated by women?
I walked with my class across campus recently when some passing kid I’ve never met said, “Hi Mr. Love.”
What's this?
