Men teach, too

Launching the Male Educator Network. Time to take representation seriously.

The all-new, first-of-its-kind Male Educator Network. Check it out.

It’s Teacher Appreciation Day! Huge thanks to all those educators out there.

But there is one kind of teacher in short supply: the male kind. Think about when you first had a male teacher. Chances are it wasn’t until middle school: most kids won’t have a male teacher until 6th grade at the earliest. Men now account for only one in ten teachers in elementary school, and just one in five at middle school.

This is personal for me. The male teachers I had made a huge impact on me, not least in breaking down gender stereotypes. I struggled a lot in English, for example, until Mr Cole and Mr Wyatt showed that a love of language was not, as I’d thought, a girly thing.

And now, to my enormous pride, my son is a 5th grade teacher in Baltimore City MD. When I think about the various influences (and influencers) shaping the debate about modern manhood, I often consider the positive impact of my son standing at the front of that classroom every day. Not telling the kids what it means to be a man in the 21st century; showing them.

But my son is part of a shrinking cohort of male educators. In the 1980s, men accounted for 33% of K-12 teachers. Today that share is 23% and falling. Year after year, the share of male educators goes down. Year after year, the policy response is essentially non-existent.

As I’ve written about here and elsewhere on a number of occasions, the shrinking share of men in the classroom is a problem for the teaching profession (increasingly relying on only half the labor market); a problem for men (who miss out on meaningful and increasingly better-paid work); and a problem for boys (who do not see themselves in their teachers).

We’ve made great progress in improving the gender representation in other key professions, including STEM, law and medicine. But we’ve gone backwards in terms of representation in K-12 education:

I think that representation matters as much in education as it does in medicine. I celebrate the increased share of female physicians. But I lament the decline in the share of men in K-12. The decline doesn’t look set to reverse any time soon, again in contrast to the terrific progress in other areas.

Women now account for half the students in medical school, so the profession is headed to gender balance. Not so for education schools and male representation:

I am genuinely surprised that more people don’t care about this issue, given the trends in our society right now. It is also a rare non-partisan issue, or should be. Sen. Josh Hawley thinks more male teachers would probably be a good idea. The ultra-progressive American Psychological Association agrees. That seems like a pretty broad tent. So what’s stopping us?

I’ll be honest. I can no longer take seriously any policymaker or philanthropist who says something to the effect of “we need more positive male role models" and does not have a positive agenda for increasing the share of male educators.

What other policy levers are available to get these role models in front of our boys and girls, on a daily basis?

Launching M.E.N.

It is in that spirit that we’re today launching a brand-new initiative, the Male Educator Network and Policy Institute, led by AIBM Fellow and all-round superlative human being, Curtis Valentine:

M.E.N. will be a network of people—educators, administrators, policymakers, parents—who are committed to a rather straightforward goal: getting more men into the classroom and supporting the men already there. The new Institute is dedicated to creating pathways, building a community, and recognizing that this matters and that we have a role to play in turning it around.

When talking about the goals of M.E.N. (which I serve as Board Chair), I often refer to the success of organizations like the Society of Women Engineers. Over years and decades, SWE has made the case for female representation, changed policy, built community, supported students (including financially), and raised awareness. That’s exactly what’s needed in the male educator space. We plan to pay organizations like SWE the greatest compliment, in the form of imitation.

At M.E.N., we’re going to work on several fronts.

1. Make teaching more visible and attractive to men as a genuinely meaningful career—not as a fallback, but a calling.

2. Support men who are already in the classroom, making sure they feel valued and supported, in order to help them remain in the profession. The data from AIBM is clear: this is not just a recruitment issue, it’s a retention issue too.

3. Promote policies and initiatives to boost the share of men entering and remaining in teaching, working with policymakers at all levels, from school to Congress.

Reversing the decline in the share of male educators is going to take time, require commitment, and it’s going to require all of us—not just educators, but parents, employers, policy leaders to play our part. But I truly believe we can do it. And that we must do it.

I’ve been waiting for this day for some time now, and I couldn’t be more excited. I hope you’ll take a moment to learn more about M.E.N. and how you might support our efforts. We are building a first-of-it-kind institution, and I think it’s going to be awesome.

If you know a male teacher, take a moment to thank him today. Better yet, encourage a young man in your life to consider teaching. We need them.