WHERE THE BOYS AREN'T

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. Newsweek and CBS took up the cause of gender balance in teaching last week, citing low pay and stereotyping.

If there were ever a profession where demographic representation is meaningful, it’s teaching. We work with the youngest members of society, after all, who somewhat uncritically see their teachers as role models, often simply because they’re pretty, funny or willing to tie their shoes. In a position so influential in shaping lives, it’s critical to have some gender—and ethnic—equity. We are rapidly approaching a 20/80 split in male/female teachers—and don’t even ask about our sorry recruitment rate on racial diversity.

The usual argument about men rejecting or abandoning teaching because of low pay was trotted out in both articles. No disagreement there, although the back end of that line of reasoning is the fact that some women are still willing to work for peanuts, even with vastly expanded career opportunities in the past 3 to 4 decades. I’m not so sure that a significant across-the-board jump in teacher salaries would change the male-female ratio, however. I think the exodus of men has as much to do with power and image as money.

Teaching is a socially unimpressive job, a flat career, in America. Figures on the percentage of male teachers in other countries are a little muzzy—but it’s absolutely clear that economically thriving countries attract proportionately more men into teaching. Being a teacher in the U.S. is a dead-end job (and I say that as a person who finds teaching endlessly creative and vitally important). We live in a country where we've had to incorporate the definition of a “highly qualified” teacher into legislation, and initiate teacher-as-missionary programs like Troops to Teachers and Teach for America as a means to upgrade and balance the teaching force. It might be worth asking why we can’t get talented people, especially men, to take these rewarding, essential jobs. 

The most sinister aspect of the lack of men in the profession is what Newsweek politely called “stereotyping”—the knee-jerk assumption that male teachers who work with young children are less than masculine, gay, or even predatory. Here in Michigan, an ongoing court case has focused attention on a kindergarten teacher accused of assaulting two unnamed students, one of whom has a questionable but legally suppressed history. The case has had many legal twists and turns; at one point the prosecutor presented “sick evidence,” from the teacher’s seized computer, of multiple photos of his students from the knees down. Turned out the teacher had created a kiddy version of the Shoe Project—asking his students to match their own classmates’ faces and footwear. Hardly an example of perversion, but any prospective or practicing male teacher following the story would have to see it as a kind of cautionary tale.

I have had conversations with male teacher buddies about hurtful and unsubstantiated claims against their integrity and masculinity. Some noted that the whispers and parent unease went away when they married; others took coaching jobs or made how-about-those-Tigers comments to dads at parent-teacher conferences. All of them said it was a constant, if low-level, anxiety. And that says more about who we are, as a society, than the kinds of people we need to build world-class schools.

Comments

[John Holland]

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy.
Where to begin?
I think that many men are afraid of their own capacity to care. It is much easier to push people around than to help them up.
I am a major minority as a male preschool teacher, I know that it takes great patience to teach. This is usually the clincher for many men. They want everything now.

In the world of generalizations there are always exceptions. I think one of the reasons I ended up teaching is that I grew up wanting to "fight the good fight." When I realized that the best way to affect the future was to teach young kids, thats what I did.
I am not sure most men are strong enough to teach.One of the scariest things in the world for men is to hear their father's voice come out of their mouths.
To teach they would have to put aside their boyhood which "we" really never want to lose.
But hey, on the flip side at least I get to have ice cream and cake about 12 times a school year.

[loonyhiker]

This is really me sad, especially since so many of our young children really need male role models. Also, society expects men to make the "big" money to support the family and we all know there is no "big" money in teaching!

[Nancy Flanagan]

John and Loony--
Most male teachers do have to jump over some conceptual and social barriers to pursue teaching. That might be construed as "wanting to fight the good fight"--and you have to love men who teach because they're called, and do it despite the low pay and other drawbacks.

Remember when I said some of my best friends are men who teach? Most of them have a bit of their boyish selves still present in their character. And I think that's an attractive thing in a man. Male teachers who show their students that men can not only care but be playful, let down their guard, nurture and console and be passionate about something (anything) other than making money and crushing the competition are valuable commodities.

[Jessica]

I agree that most men have significant social hurdles to cross when considering a career in education. I have also noticed that most men who do become educators spend as little time as possible in the classroom before going into administration. I think that men have this social bias that teaching is women's work because it involves children. Women have traditionally been delegated in caretaking roles such as teaching and nursing. Therefore men who consider these careers are considered effeminate. Now I don't think that's the way it should be. I personally think it is attractive for a man to be a caretaker of children. Anyway, until society's viewpoint about traditional male and female roles changes drastically (more than it ever has before) there will always be a dearth of men in the teaching profession.

[Nancy Flanagan]

You said it, Jessica. Society has to change before we solve the problem of diminishing numbers of male teachers. Wish every pre-school teacher could be John Holland.

[Christopher Phillips]

I taught for a year as a special educator and often wondered about the lack of males in special education specifically. In the group of 50 that went through worked on our special ed degrees together, I was the lone male. One possibility may be that men for whatever reason feel a greater need to see tangible, immediate results of their work- so many of the reward of teaching are intangible or are not immediately evident.

[Nancy Flanagan]

All the ideas thrown out here have ring of truth--men need to see results sooner, men dislike caring for children, etc. In the blog, I mention that this IS an American phenomenon. I did a little research before writing the blog, around % of male teachers in other countries. One statistic stuck in my head: While about 38% of Science teachers are male in America, 80% are male in the Netherlands--and most first-world nations average around 2/3 male teachers in science and math jobs. There was a fringe-right website proclaiming that the reason our kids do so poorly on math and science tests (if that's even true) is because they have female teachers. I don't want to go THERE--but do find it really interesting that this "women are teachers, Men are from Mars" syndrome seems to be almost exclusively American. Hmmm.

[Jessica]

My husband is currently struggling through elementary student teaching, and I'm seeing an extremely sinister dynamic at work. Generally, men aren't interested in creating cutesy bulletin boards or organizing teaching materials by color. The lack of male teachers has made it incredibly difficult for men to discover their own teaching rhythm in a distinctly female world. My husband isn't interested in gossip in the teachers lounge or in teaching like a woman teaches. He is a man through and through, and he has something unique to give to the students he works with. He should not be forced to teach like a woman.

[Nancy Flanagan]

Hey, Jessica.

Thanks for an interesting comment. Buy your husband a copy of "Great Expectations School" by Dan Brown. (Not the Da Vinci Code guy...) Lots of stories about developing a non-cutesy ways of working with younger kids.

Glad you came by.
Nancy