I just read your Guardian piece. You should have just admitted that no male will ever vote for a woman and that you believe women should be kept as property. Your entire existence is devoted to the idea that men are important and women are shit.
I hope that the Trump adminstration is the complete and utter catastrophe that everyone predicts and that men suffer as much as men want women to suffer.
Men hate women. That’s what you’re selling but you’re too damned cowardly to admit it.
Why should she? Why can’t we just let men die? If they want to be worthless, I say we give them all the porn and fentanyl they can consume until they cease to be a problem
I'd reply explaining how winning votes is a desirable thing in a democracy and how wishing death on half the population isn't particularly moral, but you don't sound like a rational person and I don't think this would be a fruitful conversation.
Best wishes, I hope you find your way out of whatever state you're in.
Here’s a recipe for Pheasant en Sarcophage, a classic French dish where pheasant is served in a “sarcophagus” of puff pastry with a creamy mushroom filling. This luxurious recipe will make an impressive main course for a special occasion.
I prefer it to Quail en Sarcophage - out of Babette’s Feast (Isak Dineson / Karen Blixen), but I like something meatier.
Ingredients:
Pheasant
• 2 pheasant breasts (skin on, if possible)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth
Mushroom Duxelles (Filling)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 cups mushrooms, finely chopped (cremini or wild mushrooms work well)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Puff Pastry Shells
• 1 sheet puff pastry (store-bought or homemade)
• 1 egg (for egg wash)
• Flour (for dusting)
Sauce (Optional)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup pheasant pan drippings (or substitute with chicken broth)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions:
1. Prepare the Puff Pastry Shells
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
2. On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to about 1/8-inch thickness.
3. Cut the pastry into circles or rectangles large enough to hold the pheasant breasts and mushroom filling. Cut smaller circles for the “lids.”
4. Place the larger pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the smaller “lid” circles beside them.
5. Brush with egg wash and bake for 12–15 minutes, or until golden and puffed. Let them cool slightly, then carefully remove the centers to create a hollow space. Set aside.
2. Prepare the Pheasant
1. Season the pheasant breasts with salt and pepper.
2. Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the pheasant breasts and cook until golden, about 4–5 minutes per side. Remove the breasts and set aside.
3. Deglaze the pan with white wine or chicken broth, scraping up any bits. Reserve the drippings for the sauce.
3. Prepare the Mushroom Duxelles
1. In the same skillet, add butter and olive oil. Add shallots and cook until softened, about 2 minutes.
2. Add mushrooms and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and any liquid has evaporated.
3. Add the white wine and cook until reduced by half.
4. Stir in heavy cream and fresh parsley, cooking until creamy. Set aside.
4. Assemble
1. Place a spoonful of the mushroom duxelles inside each puff pastry shell.
2. Slice the pheasant breasts and arrange on top of the mushroom mixture.
3. Cover with the small pastry “lid.”
5. Make the Sauce (Optional)
1. In a saucepan, combine heavy cream and reserved pan drippings. Bring to a simmer, reduce by half, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Drizzle the sauce over or around the pastry on the plate.
6. Serve
• Place the assembled Pheasant en Sarcophage on plates and garnish with fresh herbs. Serve with the sauce if desired.
Enjoy your decadent and elegant Pheasant en Sarcophage!
1. Prepare Strawberries: Place the chopped strawberries in a large pot or saucepan.
2. Add Lemon: Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and water to the pot with strawberries. The lemon’s natural pectin helps the marmalade set.
3. Cook: Set the pot over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer.
4. Add Sugar: Gradually stir in the sugar, ensuring it’s fully dissolved. Continue to simmer and stir until the mixture thickens, which takes around 20–30 minutes. Check for thickness by dropping a small amount on a cold plate—if it wrinkles when pushed, it’s ready.
5. Jar and Seal: Remove from heat and ladle the hot marmalade into sterilized jars. Seal tightly and let cool to room temperature. Store in the fridge or process in a water bath for longer shelf life.
6. Enjoy: Let the marmalade set for at least 24 hours before serving on toast, biscuits, or your favorite pastry.
This recipe should yield about 3-4 half-pint jars.
I'm a teacher, and I had two friends who graduated from education; they were both male, and instead of congratulating them, the headmistress said, "I'm so glad we have so many women in this room." Seriously? We're a Humanities graduation, you should celebrate the male graduates who are breaking the gender role barrier in a very sexist country.
One of the big reasons I homeschool - the feminization of schools - especially elementary education, and the interference of moms in playground/classroom spats. I cringe at some of my social media mommy group posts - how so many young moms are wanting to talk with the kindergarten teacher b/c one classmate did something (that's no big deal imo) to their kid. If the teacher was a man, I'm not sure how easy he could be bulldozed to need to interfere with a 6 yr old's spat. Or if a "bully" kid would dare to do something to another kid in the male teacher's classroom?
I'm a mom but my son knows I'm not going to fight his fights.
I also know boys will make anything (paper, tree branch, fingers) into a "gun" and run around and shoot. I don't want all these female teachers to poo-poo that instinct out of my son.
I find great male role models for my son through sports coaches - football, baseball, hockey, and of course his father who lives at home. There's no point for my son to know xyz school subject if he can't become a good man.
As a mom of a boy, you do have to go against today's mainstream society's grain to ensure you raise a man, and not some __________ (you can fill in the blank, there's lots of options).
I used to be a teacher (for 25 years), and in my heart, I still am. (I coach football (soccer for not handegg)). If there was one simple solution to this question, I believe we would have solved it a long time ago.
I think Reeves is on to some of the issues, and I believe his four points are on point, but...
There are a couple of issues he is not addressing. (I respect his reasons why, which he explains on the Modern Wisdom podcast - (the need and willingness to "kiss the ring" of feminism, to get any traction at all with grants and funding to issues reagrding boys and men). I believe John Carter (https://barsoom.substack.com/p/academia-is-womens-work) is spot on in his analysis - too many women in a given field will lead to male-flight: " Young men will take one look at a program with 85% female enrolment, and instinctively understand that going into that program is the social equivalent of entering the women’s bathroom."
Second, I believe the curriculum and the in-class-discourse in the institutions is not favorable to young men. Third, I do believe that a general mistrust towards men in society (who would you rather encounter in the woods? a man or a bear; A bear!) will keep men away from all HEAL professions.
So, sorry, but I don't see a way out of this mess before we as a society address and regard young men different from today.
I am a male, middle school science teacher. I started in teaching as a young man over 20 years ago. I had a science degree, not an education degree, so I started in the private schools before getting my masters and switching to public schools.
I left teaching for curriculum development after my 5th year because that was where the job opportunities were. I stayed there for 5 years. By the time I returned to teaching, my license had expired, so I went back to the private schools. I also taught at university, taught online during Covid, and did a short stint working as a research assistant in education policy. This year, I returned to teaching in public school, but the bureaucratic hurdle was high. I'm in a place in my life now where I expect to stay in teaching for quite some time, but it has been a very winding path.
And I don't blame men for avoiding the risk. Enough women are hysterical enough to say they'd prefer to meet a bear in the woods over a man... hell some of um would, at least rhetorically (most of what feminists say is rhetorical), sooner have a bear in the classroom than a normal looking dude (a fact evidenced by their keen interest in handing their children over to a drag queen for story time).
Years ago there was a male teacher in our men's group. He described how he had to walk on eggshells, so that enything he said or did could not be construed as being pedophilia. Poor man was a nervous wreack.
Regardless, the primary reason why men don't go into education is because they are assumed to be perverts. Dear Richard doesn't want to speak to that because the cause of such stigma would implicate his feminist superiors.
How many abusive Catholic priests were pedos (4%) vs pederasts (80%)? And yet why is it ALWAYS referred to as the pedo abuse scandal? Because to protect a certain group of men all men must be demonized.
I have a friend who is a professor and teaches at 5 different schools. I know you're speaking more to men teaching kids, but I also think its relevant that there's a decided lack of access at the upper levels of academia. Admittedly all the hoop jumping doesn't help. I went most of the way through a ph.d and left because I realized I would be hoop jumping most of my life professionally, so to speak and I had no desire to deal with the politics.
The main issue of why men avoid it needs to be addressed seriously. Men avoid it because false allegations of sexual misconduct cause vast psychological, personal and career harm to men. Many women and people see themselves as victims and see men as perpetrators. The process of proving a negative IS the punishment for being a male teacher in a feminized cultural battle-field, of which school indoctrination is one.
As someone who was a teacher for his first career, I loved it and would have stayed teaching forever, except I heard other teachers with families talk about how hard it was to make ends meet. I luckily feel into work that I love and am getting back into the classroom again at the university level.
Watch out for promotion of tying salary increases to performance, particularly if it’s tied to a standardized test…there’s more nuance than meets the eye. Also, I would suggest you look into how some of the tax policies like Proposition 2 1/2 impacted MA in the late 70’s/80’s(?). This shifted the structure from Jr HS to middle schools and changed how much money was available for extracurricular activities. Today we see things like block scheduling as a new scheme to increase the overall teacher load (#of students engaged) in many districts while reducing the number of teachers in a school system. Policies like this are what drive teachers out.
At the end of your article, an emphasis on teachers unions would be a more effective next step. You mentioned NC, a “right to work state” which outlaws local teachers unions. This results in teachers having to take on more “duties” without pay and impacting their ability to prep, grade in a timely manner, and earn more within the system for extra work. Many teachers in these systems feel like servants. I taught in NC for 3 years.
100% agree on the need and benefit all students would receive from more qualified male teachers. Keep pushing this in your work.
I left a career in software to become a high school English teacher at 35. I was sick of the churn and heave of the dot com world, and pretty disenchanted with corporate America in general. That was 20 years ago and I’m still in the classroom.
Your suggestions and recommendations are all excellent - we need more male teachers, especially teachers of color and more male middle school teachers.
It’s true that teaching is a calling - no one is doing this for the money. I work at a small charter school and I’ve earned quite a bit of respect from students and parents over the years, and in fact I feel like being a male has made classroom management easier.
Sadly public education is at a real crossroads and I think traditional classroom chalk talk is in its death throes. This does present an opportunity for us to remodel and refashion education. I think men excel as coaches and mentors - perhaps we have an educational system that resembles traditional crafts and trades?
The only way to attract substantially more male teachers at this point is to reintroduce sex-segregated schools free of the teachers unions and not requiring wasting over a year in the mind numbingly stupid and useless ideological cesspools our teachers colleges have become.
You are missing the point. Getting more teachers has to be a reaction ro female bias, but this should acknowledge this bias first. Lets be clear: we need to take the privilege of controling education from women. And this IS not archieved just by adding male teachers. You need to masculinize education of boys.
That's what I'm saying. The ed profession is so thoroughly toxically feminine at this point that the kind of men who can fix it want nothing to do with it (as is). Deeper reform is needed than just more men being induced to suffer under the broken system for a few years until they find something more productive to do.
Bingo. I agree with many of Richard's prescriptions. Merit based pay is essential (ideally not tied to standardized tests) as it rewards competition. Number two is to take dead aim at the master's degree / Ed degree racket, which creates an unnecessary hierarchy and has little if anything to do with competence and character.
As far as where male teachers can enter the market, I think the push towards school choice and experimental / entrepreneurial education is the way. Attract as many good men as possible, pay them, and watch the students / parents come. Then public schools, which aren't going away, will have to react.
So, it's not "sex-segregated schools" you are after, but ones where the masculine influence is equal to the feminine, and no more.
"Better pay" sounds good to people until they find out how you get the money to pay teachers better - raising taxes. Good luck with that...
I was a high school teacher for a couple of years, and I can tell you one of the major factors that drove me out was the absolute lack of respect that both students and parents have for teachers.
Couple that with the fact we expect teachers to do Herculean things with children that are poorly socialized and traumatized by their terrible parents, and I know very few people that are teachers that want to stay. If they have options to leave they do.
Teaching is like being in law-enforcement; you don't do it for the money you do it because you called too. Affording the respect for teachers (and police officers for that matter) they deserve will go much farther than mere money IMHO.
There's a ridiculous amount of money wasted/siphoned off in the existing public school system. Better and realistic management (the kind that would lead to better pay for better work) would drastically reduce the current budget.
Depends where you are, of course. Some combination of money wasted on incompetent/unmotivated teachers (not to mention the downstream costs such teachers have on individual students and society as a whole), public union/state corruption, useless tech and the staff needed to keep it running that research consistently shows is at best neutral but probably counter-productive to learning, staff in-service nonsense, sketchy deals with outside contractors, rules requiring non-market-bid contracting for building construction/maintenance, throwing ridiculous amounts of money into IEPs because it's easier than resisting the unrealistic demands/hopes of parents...to name just a few.
Sounds good, but you're not getting any of that through a school board. Plus, unless you have a roster of highly motivated, competent teachers to replace all of the mediocre/bad ones you're gonna get rid of, the overburdened teachers that are left are also going to leave
Oh, I know. Richard's solution is silly. There's no easy fix to the schools' problems. It's going to require a complete reformation and change in public consciousness (which may be happening). Throwing in extra money in hopes of attracting more male teachers is going to make the schools worse, not better, as long as they're managed by the current bureacracy.
I got my teaching degree but then left the field because it was too politically fraught.
I just read your Guardian piece. You should have just admitted that no male will ever vote for a woman and that you believe women should be kept as property. Your entire existence is devoted to the idea that men are important and women are shit.
I hope that the Trump adminstration is the complete and utter catastrophe that everyone predicts and that men suffer as much as men want women to suffer.
Men hate women. That’s what you’re selling but you’re too damned cowardly to admit it.
If you mean this interview, I find your comment utterly detached from reality: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/08/young-men-donald-trump-kamala-harris
The entire thrust of that conversation is that Harris could have done much more to appeal to men.
Why should she? Why can’t we just let men die? If they want to be worthless, I say we give them all the porn and fentanyl they can consume until they cease to be a problem
I'd reply explaining how winning votes is a desirable thing in a democracy and how wishing death on half the population isn't particularly moral, but you don't sound like a rational person and I don't think this would be a fruitful conversation.
Best wishes, I hope you find your way out of whatever state you're in.
Most men want to kill women. Why can’t we respond in kind?
Here’s a recipe for Pheasant en Sarcophage, a classic French dish where pheasant is served in a “sarcophagus” of puff pastry with a creamy mushroom filling. This luxurious recipe will make an impressive main course for a special occasion.
I prefer it to Quail en Sarcophage - out of Babette’s Feast (Isak Dineson / Karen Blixen), but I like something meatier.
Ingredients:
Pheasant
• 2 pheasant breasts (skin on, if possible)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth
Mushroom Duxelles (Filling)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 2 cups mushrooms, finely chopped (cremini or wild mushrooms work well)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Puff Pastry Shells
• 1 sheet puff pastry (store-bought or homemade)
• 1 egg (for egg wash)
• Flour (for dusting)
Sauce (Optional)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup pheasant pan drippings (or substitute with chicken broth)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions:
1. Prepare the Puff Pastry Shells
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
2. On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry to about 1/8-inch thickness.
3. Cut the pastry into circles or rectangles large enough to hold the pheasant breasts and mushroom filling. Cut smaller circles for the “lids.”
4. Place the larger pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the smaller “lid” circles beside them.
5. Brush with egg wash and bake for 12–15 minutes, or until golden and puffed. Let them cool slightly, then carefully remove the centers to create a hollow space. Set aside.
2. Prepare the Pheasant
1. Season the pheasant breasts with salt and pepper.
2. Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the pheasant breasts and cook until golden, about 4–5 minutes per side. Remove the breasts and set aside.
3. Deglaze the pan with white wine or chicken broth, scraping up any bits. Reserve the drippings for the sauce.
3. Prepare the Mushroom Duxelles
1. In the same skillet, add butter and olive oil. Add shallots and cook until softened, about 2 minutes.
2. Add mushrooms and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and any liquid has evaporated.
3. Add the white wine and cook until reduced by half.
4. Stir in heavy cream and fresh parsley, cooking until creamy. Set aside.
4. Assemble
1. Place a spoonful of the mushroom duxelles inside each puff pastry shell.
2. Slice the pheasant breasts and arrange on top of the mushroom mixture.
3. Cover with the small pastry “lid.”
5. Make the Sauce (Optional)
1. In a saucepan, combine heavy cream and reserved pan drippings. Bring to a simmer, reduce by half, and season with salt and pepper.
2. Drizzle the sauce over or around the pastry on the plate.
6. Serve
• Place the assembled Pheasant en Sarcophage on plates and garnish with fresh herbs. Serve with the sauce if desired.
Enjoy your decadent and elegant Pheasant en Sarcophage!
The appropriate reply for this is a recipe!
Here’s a simple recipe for strawberry marmalade:
Ingredients
• 2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
Instructions
1. Prepare Strawberries: Place the chopped strawberries in a large pot or saucepan.
2. Add Lemon: Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and water to the pot with strawberries. The lemon’s natural pectin helps the marmalade set.
3. Cook: Set the pot over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer.
4. Add Sugar: Gradually stir in the sugar, ensuring it’s fully dissolved. Continue to simmer and stir until the mixture thickens, which takes around 20–30 minutes. Check for thickness by dropping a small amount on a cold plate—if it wrinkles when pushed, it’s ready.
5. Jar and Seal: Remove from heat and ladle the hot marmalade into sterilized jars. Seal tightly and let cool to room temperature. Store in the fridge or process in a water bath for longer shelf life.
6. Enjoy: Let the marmalade set for at least 24 hours before serving on toast, biscuits, or your favorite pastry.
This recipe should yield about 3-4 half-pint jars.
Why do women have to save men? Men NEVER did anything for us. Men hate us and treat us like shit. Why can’t we hate back?
I'm a teacher, and I had two friends who graduated from education; they were both male, and instead of congratulating them, the headmistress said, "I'm so glad we have so many women in this room." Seriously? We're a Humanities graduation, you should celebrate the male graduates who are breaking the gender role barrier in a very sexist country.
One of the big reasons I homeschool - the feminization of schools - especially elementary education, and the interference of moms in playground/classroom spats. I cringe at some of my social media mommy group posts - how so many young moms are wanting to talk with the kindergarten teacher b/c one classmate did something (that's no big deal imo) to their kid. If the teacher was a man, I'm not sure how easy he could be bulldozed to need to interfere with a 6 yr old's spat. Or if a "bully" kid would dare to do something to another kid in the male teacher's classroom?
I'm a mom but my son knows I'm not going to fight his fights.
I also know boys will make anything (paper, tree branch, fingers) into a "gun" and run around and shoot. I don't want all these female teachers to poo-poo that instinct out of my son.
I find great male role models for my son through sports coaches - football, baseball, hockey, and of course his father who lives at home. There's no point for my son to know xyz school subject if he can't become a good man.
As a mom of a boy, you do have to go against today's mainstream society's grain to ensure you raise a man, and not some __________ (you can fill in the blank, there's lots of options).
I used to be a teacher (for 25 years), and in my heart, I still am. (I coach football (soccer for not handegg)). If there was one simple solution to this question, I believe we would have solved it a long time ago.
I think Reeves is on to some of the issues, and I believe his four points are on point, but...
There are a couple of issues he is not addressing. (I respect his reasons why, which he explains on the Modern Wisdom podcast - (the need and willingness to "kiss the ring" of feminism, to get any traction at all with grants and funding to issues reagrding boys and men). I believe John Carter (https://barsoom.substack.com/p/academia-is-womens-work) is spot on in his analysis - too many women in a given field will lead to male-flight: " Young men will take one look at a program with 85% female enrolment, and instinctively understand that going into that program is the social equivalent of entering the women’s bathroom."
Second, I believe the curriculum and the in-class-discourse in the institutions is not favorable to young men. Third, I do believe that a general mistrust towards men in society (who would you rather encounter in the woods? a man or a bear; A bear!) will keep men away from all HEAL professions.
So, sorry, but I don't see a way out of this mess before we as a society address and regard young men different from today.
I suppose I am a good case study.
I am a male, middle school science teacher. I started in teaching as a young man over 20 years ago. I had a science degree, not an education degree, so I started in the private schools before getting my masters and switching to public schools.
I left teaching for curriculum development after my 5th year because that was where the job opportunities were. I stayed there for 5 years. By the time I returned to teaching, my license had expired, so I went back to the private schools. I also taught at university, taught online during Covid, and did a short stint working as a research assistant in education policy. This year, I returned to teaching in public school, but the bureaucratic hurdle was high. I'm in a place in my life now where I expect to stay in teaching for quite some time, but it has been a very winding path.
You're not going to address the pedophile elephant in the room?
Exactly! Men being around children, in any capacity, is a breeding ground for false accusations of any number of crimes.
And I don't blame men for avoiding the risk. Enough women are hysterical enough to say they'd prefer to meet a bear in the woods over a man... hell some of um would, at least rhetorically (most of what feminists say is rhetorical), sooner have a bear in the classroom than a normal looking dude (a fact evidenced by their keen interest in handing their children over to a drag queen for story time).
Years ago there was a male teacher in our men's group. He described how he had to walk on eggshells, so that enything he said or did could not be construed as being pedophilia. Poor man was a nervous wreack.
I think you mean the pederast elephant.
Regardless, the primary reason why men don't go into education is because they are assumed to be perverts. Dear Richard doesn't want to speak to that because the cause of such stigma would implicate his feminist superiors.
That's far from the main reason. But you're right that he's not likely to touch it.
And definitely won't touch the most-"pedophiles"-are-actually-pederasts problem.
I think I know what point you're trying to make by making that distinction... but not really, care to clarify?
How many abusive Catholic priests were pedos (4%) vs pederasts (80%)? And yet why is it ALWAYS referred to as the pedo abuse scandal? Because to protect a certain group of men all men must be demonized.
Most people use the terms interchangeably... decent people tend to be disgusted by both.
I have a friend who is a professor and teaches at 5 different schools. I know you're speaking more to men teaching kids, but I also think its relevant that there's a decided lack of access at the upper levels of academia. Admittedly all the hoop jumping doesn't help. I went most of the way through a ph.d and left because I realized I would be hoop jumping most of my life professionally, so to speak and I had no desire to deal with the politics.
https://barsoom.substack.com/p/academia-is-womens-work
The main issue of why men avoid it needs to be addressed seriously. Men avoid it because false allegations of sexual misconduct cause vast psychological, personal and career harm to men. Many women and people see themselves as victims and see men as perpetrators. The process of proving a negative IS the punishment for being a male teacher in a feminized cultural battle-field, of which school indoctrination is one.
This is definitely a reality. Men have to be really careful.
As someone who was a teacher for his first career, I loved it and would have stayed teaching forever, except I heard other teachers with families talk about how hard it was to make ends meet. I luckily feel into work that I love and am getting back into the classroom again at the university level.
Watch out for promotion of tying salary increases to performance, particularly if it’s tied to a standardized test…there’s more nuance than meets the eye. Also, I would suggest you look into how some of the tax policies like Proposition 2 1/2 impacted MA in the late 70’s/80’s(?). This shifted the structure from Jr HS to middle schools and changed how much money was available for extracurricular activities. Today we see things like block scheduling as a new scheme to increase the overall teacher load (#of students engaged) in many districts while reducing the number of teachers in a school system. Policies like this are what drive teachers out.
At the end of your article, an emphasis on teachers unions would be a more effective next step. You mentioned NC, a “right to work state” which outlaws local teachers unions. This results in teachers having to take on more “duties” without pay and impacting their ability to prep, grade in a timely manner, and earn more within the system for extra work. Many teachers in these systems feel like servants. I taught in NC for 3 years.
100% agree on the need and benefit all students would receive from more qualified male teachers. Keep pushing this in your work.
I left a career in software to become a high school English teacher at 35. I was sick of the churn and heave of the dot com world, and pretty disenchanted with corporate America in general. That was 20 years ago and I’m still in the classroom.
Your suggestions and recommendations are all excellent - we need more male teachers, especially teachers of color and more male middle school teachers.
It’s true that teaching is a calling - no one is doing this for the money. I work at a small charter school and I’ve earned quite a bit of respect from students and parents over the years, and in fact I feel like being a male has made classroom management easier.
Sadly public education is at a real crossroads and I think traditional classroom chalk talk is in its death throes. This does present an opportunity for us to remodel and refashion education. I think men excel as coaches and mentors - perhaps we have an educational system that resembles traditional crafts and trades?
The only way to attract substantially more male teachers at this point is to reintroduce sex-segregated schools free of the teachers unions and not requiring wasting over a year in the mind numbingly stupid and useless ideological cesspools our teachers colleges have become.
You are missing the point. Getting more teachers has to be a reaction ro female bias, but this should acknowledge this bias first. Lets be clear: we need to take the privilege of controling education from women. And this IS not archieved just by adding male teachers. You need to masculinize education of boys.
That's what I'm saying. The ed profession is so thoroughly toxically feminine at this point that the kind of men who can fix it want nothing to do with it (as is). Deeper reform is needed than just more men being induced to suffer under the broken system for a few years until they find something more productive to do.
Indeed. Sorry, the comment was for Reeves, not for you. I agree 100% with you :)
Bingo. I agree with many of Richard's prescriptions. Merit based pay is essential (ideally not tied to standardized tests) as it rewards competition. Number two is to take dead aim at the master's degree / Ed degree racket, which creates an unnecessary hierarchy and has little if anything to do with competence and character.
As far as where male teachers can enter the market, I think the push towards school choice and experimental / entrepreneurial education is the way. Attract as many good men as possible, pay them, and watch the students / parents come. Then public schools, which aren't going away, will have to react.
So, it's not "sex-segregated schools" you are after, but ones where the masculine influence is equal to the feminine, and no more.
We need sexy segregation to ensure that ed of boys IS masculinised, and adapted to boys development.
Whatever works, friend. Our shared point is the system, as is, has nothing to offer most men (or boys) and needs to be shaken to the roots.
"Better pay" sounds good to people until they find out how you get the money to pay teachers better - raising taxes. Good luck with that...
I was a high school teacher for a couple of years, and I can tell you one of the major factors that drove me out was the absolute lack of respect that both students and parents have for teachers.
Couple that with the fact we expect teachers to do Herculean things with children that are poorly socialized and traumatized by their terrible parents, and I know very few people that are teachers that want to stay. If they have options to leave they do.
Teaching is like being in law-enforcement; you don't do it for the money you do it because you called too. Affording the respect for teachers (and police officers for that matter) they deserve will go much farther than mere money IMHO.
There's a ridiculous amount of money wasted/siphoned off in the existing public school system. Better and realistic management (the kind that would lead to better pay for better work) would drastically reduce the current budget.
Where do you suppose there is this waste? What specifically would you do to create "better and realistic management"?
Depends where you are, of course. Some combination of money wasted on incompetent/unmotivated teachers (not to mention the downstream costs such teachers have on individual students and society as a whole), public union/state corruption, useless tech and the staff needed to keep it running that research consistently shows is at best neutral but probably counter-productive to learning, staff in-service nonsense, sketchy deals with outside contractors, rules requiring non-market-bid contracting for building construction/maintenance, throwing ridiculous amounts of money into IEPs because it's easier than resisting the unrealistic demands/hopes of parents...to name just a few.
Sounds good, but you're not getting any of that through a school board. Plus, unless you have a roster of highly motivated, competent teachers to replace all of the mediocre/bad ones you're gonna get rid of, the overburdened teachers that are left are also going to leave
Oh, I know. Richard's solution is silly. There's no easy fix to the schools' problems. It's going to require a complete reformation and change in public consciousness (which may be happening). Throwing in extra money in hopes of attracting more male teachers is going to make the schools worse, not better, as long as they're managed by the current bureacracy.