Letters

I had a REALLY interesting conversation with both a female and a male ECE student yesterday.

The gist of it was the male - who had spent the day in our child development lab - commented that one of the little boys seemed to bond with him immediately.

I asked him why he thought that may have happened.

He said, 'He's never seen one of us in his room!"

The female student then said, "My boss won't hire men. She has a policy against it."

I have a male student in a curriculum development class. One of the class assignments was to evaluate a child's portfolio. The child was identified as "Chase" but no teacher name or identity was given.

I was just reading this male's student's evaluation, and throughout his narrative, he referred to the teacher as "he." I've never had this happen! Female students always refer to the teacher as "she" and every male student I've ever had has referred to the teacher as "she." This is a break-through!

I came across your website as I was researching how to start my new "second" career in life and that is to FINALLY become an elementary school teacher.

I've always wanted to teach. I've spent my entire adult career teaching adults as a corporate trainer for some large companies in the U.S. and internationally as well.

Hi folks,

In 1993 - together with some kindergarten teacher-friends of mine - we did set up a website:

Men In Childcare (menn i barnehagen).

For many years we were pretty much alone in our field in Europe. Eventually a similar site emerged - in New Zealand - and then in Scotland.

Sadly - The MIBNETT site is no longer working - and I was pleased to find this site!

Hopefully I will be able to provide this site with ideas from my side of the globe - Norway.

Peace,

I am contacting you as part of a grant I recently received from the Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS).  The project deals with recruiting and retaining highly qualified male and/or minority faculty members at the Lower School level (I've included an abstract below), and I feel that you could offer some valuable input.  As you know, diversity-in terms of gender, ethnicity, etc.-is a priority in most independent schools, yet so many Lower School faculties remain relatively homogeneous.  As part of the project, I plan to travel throughout the southeast to colleges and univ

Hello,
My son is 11years old & in the 5th grade. He is currently working on his "Career Museum" project and we really appreciated the editorial from 10/5/05. Do you have any more current statistics regarding the percentage of men teachers, especially in primary education?

My son has wanted to be a teacher since Kindergarten. His best teacher to date was his male Kindergarten teacher. He has related very well to both male teachers he has had in his school life.

[MenTeach: We wanted to share this letter with everyone. Some of these challenges are faced by all first year teachers AND some are unique challenges for male teachers.]

I did not realize how political the public school game is! I just want to learn how to be a great teacher. I have people here that I feel are not really out for my best interest.

My name is Chuck West. I live in Michigan City, IN, and have worked in, managed, and now own, a business that--among other things--provides consultative mental health services to the Chicago Head Start Program.

I found menteach.org while looking online for some basic information about my paper and ran into the studies that you had done.

I'm a graduate student. I received a B.S. in Recreation Administration and wanted to switch before but I only needed an internship to receive my degree, so I finished that.

I changed fields into special education last year and am getting a teaching certificate within a year.

Hey,

I just wanted to tell you that i really enjoy your website.

I just graduated from Eastern Michigan University and I found my first job teaching kindergarten for the fall. I cannot wait!

Jason Thomas

Dear MenTeach:
I'm proud of you for all that you're are doing!

We need more groups to support men in the field of teaching preschool and caregiving of young kids. I have learned for a guy to be a caregiver to infants/toddlers and teacher to preschool aged kids, that it takes time and passion to convience people that I'm a compassionate, loving person to the kids; just like a female teacher/caregiver.

[MenTeach: John Suur has been volunteering to offer child care services after diasters for many years. He is an attorney who retired from working at the World Bank and has worked with Toddlers for many years in his "retirement."]

This article is a narrative of how things went for me during my recent deployment to the Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and the Red Cross Center in Pensacola. A second report will comment on matters only of concern to Disaster Child Care.

Dear MenTeach,

I have just visited your website and I totally support your idea to recruit more men into teaching. I work in public health in elementary schools and see kindergarden teachers in action. It was strange to see at first but the male teachers I've seen have a different teaching style. They seem to have a calm style and a well-behaved classroom. They are supportive of the children without being overly nurturant. The children seem to respect the teacher and he treats them with respect and in a more straight-foreward manner.

Back in 1970, while I was an undergraduate at MIT, a teacher from an elementary school in Arlington, MA called MIT and asked if someone could talk to her class about pollution. At that time, I was a freshman in a new experimental program called the Unified Science Studies Program conducted by the Educational Research Center. Students in USSP did not take classes but learned experientially. I had just completed a research project on radioactive water pollution for Ralph Nader so I was asked to give a seminar on pollution to that 3rd grade class.

What does Michael Jackson have to do with Early Child Education and Childcare? One would hope nothing! Unfortunately there is a darker side to this comparison. Michael Jackson is another man accused of molesting children. There seems to be an underlying fear by many members of our society that any man in ECE is potentially a threat to their child's health and safety. These beliefs seem to persist to some degree in all cultures and ethnic groups.