Percentage of Male Teachers Hits 40-Year Low

[AngryAmish]

<http://spotlight.encarta.msn.com/Features/encnet_Departments_CareerTraining_default_article_MissingMaleTeachers.html?GT1=10887>

"When Dan Brown began teaching fourth grade at Public School 85 in the Bronx as an NYC Teaching Fellow, he quickly realized he was one of the few male teachers at the school. The gender discrepancy worked to his advantage, he said. "As a rookie, I was given my own classroom, in part because there weren't any male teachers for that grade."


But his role came with an added responsibility not many female teachers face. "Only two kids out of the 26 had parents who were married," he said. "Most of these kids had no father figure at home. To come to school and have that male authority figure who was treating them respectfully made a huge difference." " snip

"According to statistics recently released by the National Education Association (NEA), men made up just 24.4 percent of the total number of teachers in 2006. In fact, the number of male public school teachers in the U.S. has hit a record 40-year low. Arkansas, at 17.5 percent, and Mississippi, with 17.7 percent, have the lowest percentage of male teachers, while Kansas, at 33.3 percent, and Oregon, with 31.4 percent, boast the largest percentage of men leading the classroom.


Why the downward trend in male teaching? According to Bryan Nelson, founder of MenTeach, a nonprofit organization dedicated to recruiting male teachers, research suggests three key reasons for the shortage of male teachers: low status and pay, the perception that teaching is "women's work," and the fear of accusation of child abuse."

I would not go into teaching for the factors cited above, but primarily because of fear of being accused of child abuse. I never let myself alone with kids. It is too bad.

[Blue_Tires]

1. i used to be a substitute in elementary grades (i'm male)

i have no kids of my own, so i'm literally stepping into an elementary school for the first time since i was that age myself...I did schools all over a large system, and was utterly SHOCKED at how few males there were in the school...Consistently the only men in 90 percent of the schools was the janitor or PE teacher, and in some rare cases, the principal...

back when i was elementary age, the split was about 65-35, and this was in the mid-late 80s...it had even gotten so strange that many kids out of reflex called me "Ms. Tires" instead of "Mr." I'm aware of the fears over being accused of molestation, but now the school rules are so strict over physically touching students that it really wasn't an issue...

and not only that, teaching K-12 is a high-stress (but high personal reward), relatively low-pay job that requires a year or two of good training to get licensed (this is assuming you have no experience and was switching over from another career as i was)...Most qualified men i know would just as soon teach on a college level (even juco or something similar)...Subbing gave me a newfound respect for the people who choose to donate their lives to education full-time---Teaching isn't for everybody and/or anybody with a college degree, despite what the common perception is...

[Johonny]

2. I know my Dad left

because of the fear of accusation of child abuse. Male teachers are expected to break up the fights that often occur in school. Parents were suing the teachers for being too rough on their child. Basically you were in a no win situation where you couldn't let the kids kill each other, and you couldn't touch the kids to break up the fights with out risking litigation.

[DaveJ]

3. This reflects a problem that's hard for me to articulate

There is discrimination against people based on their overall 'look' and that's difficult to really describe.

A friend of mine when I was younger wanted to be a teacher, and he was turned down by the local schools, and I just know it was because he was male. I'd never met anyone who was truly so interested in their field.

But that's related to the point I'm trying to make. In any field, nobody cares anymore how much drive and passion someone has about it, as much as whether they fit into the work environment based on appearance, and other superficial qualities.

It's a shame that something that will take down our country and our freedom, is something that can barely be understood.