More "men" won't fix anything as long as the entire system is geared against them. All you will get are men completely willing to go along with the globohomo agenda.
I absolutely agree that it would be beneficial for everyone for more men to enter the teaching profession. But I have not once seen you grapple with the *reason* for the decline in the number of male teachers. Teaching was, for many obvious reasons, one of the main avenues for female employment, period, in the 19th century, and that only increased in the 20th. And as more women entered the profession, more men left it. Teaching became, both culturally and in reality, a "feminine" profession, and therein lies the rub: American men tend to define masculinity, first and foremost, in opposition to femininity. Any characteristic or occupation in which women show increased interest or aptitude, over time, inevitably shows a near equal decline in interest from men. Any college of ed in this country would be overjoyed to see more male candidates. I see principals in my local school district who are doing everything they can to attract male paraprofessionals and lead them toward obtaining teaching certification (a pathway much quicker and less expensive than a traditional 4-year degree). *Men, by and large, don't want to be teachers.* (And, to be clear: increasingly, not a lot of women, do, either! And given the working conditions, I don't blame any of them!)
And then, of course, "feminine" professions in our society tend to merit low pay. Low pay, very understandably, just adds to the reasons education is an unattractive career for men. Very rightly, it makes many women educators and their supporters suspicious to see men advocating raises for teachers only in the context of increasing male employment in the profession. Teachers - male and female - have *always* deserved more than the paltry wages allowed them in the majority of states in this country. Given that advocating for raises absent accompanying efforts to change the cultural definitions of masculinity is unlikely to drive any real increase in the number of male educators, what would you prescribe? How do we encourage men in our culture to define masculinity on its own terms, separate and apart from the feminine?
Interesting how higher pay and more benefits is floated as a way to get men into teaching. Meanwhile the country is ok with keeping things the same because teaching is seen as "women's work" and why pay women more, right?. If the pay grade is good enough for women then why not for men? Anyway, this Youtube channel is dedicated to interviewing mostly ex-teachers from around the country and exploring the reasons why so many teachers are quitting these days. The pictures they paint are pretty dismal;
Just got our 2 boys’ teacher assignments and thought of you. One of them has the second male teacher they’ve ever had. This is for fifth grade and his one and only other time was in pre-K Montessori at age 3. My nine-year-old has yet to get a male teacher.
I have a 15yo son who would make a terrific teacher. He loves kids and is so patient with them. When I think about the perfect job for him, it's middle school science teacher + basketball coach. But between the dismal pay and lack of autonomy, it just doesn't seem responsible for us to encourage him to pursue that path.
I can absolutely understand your family’s sentiments and anxiety here. Yet, as someone who was great at teaching, and knew the risks - I still did it. It was one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done with my time.
Group level statistics are just that - they tell the story of a group - but not of any individual.
This is especially true of individuals who have something transcendent in them - prowess, passion, or other potency.
It sounds like your son has at least one of these!
You sound like a good parent; I hope what I’ve said here gives your family something more to consider. Good luck and good skill to you all.
Couldn’t agree more that we need more male teachers but it’s essentially an unfunded mandate and the commenters here are in the minority. Broadly speaking the US doesn’t value education enough to pay for it. Unlike health care where we pay the most for the least compared to other developed countries in education we pay the least for the least. I am fortunate to have male friends who teach K-12 and they all went abroad to consulate school jobs first where they could bank funds to afford to survive on teaching salaries in the US. I’m optimistic we are at an inflection point in the downward spiral that has been public education. It used to be if a town wanted a teacher they built a house for them to live in. How about 0% federally backed mortgages for teachers and 0% student loans - as well as significant salary bumps?
Great correction thank you. What is the reason we seem to constantly feel our schools are underfunded? Is it that other countries don’t use education dollars to fund public pensions, health care costs and sports infrastructure?
Not sure exactly. We seem terrible at cost controlling any government program compared to our developed peers. But as the child of 2 public school teachers in a major metro school district, the administrative bloat is insane. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of administrators at these big city district offices who do nothing of value and never even come within a mile of an actual student. There are also a ton of failed "technology in the classroom" initiatives. Our student to teacher ration is actually on the higher end: https://www.statista.com/chart/28158/student-teacher-ratio-in-selected-countries/, so that should be a cost savings. Sports may make a difference in high school, but we really don't spend that much on them before then, at least where I grew up. The point on health care costs might be an effect if it's not controlled for, though it's a fraction of a teachers salary and salaries a fraction of overall ed costs.
Fascinating as I’m usually aware of our global standings. The teachers currently threatening to strike in Oregon are basically saying the same thing about administrative bloat and positions that only remotely benefit kids directly. At some point it almost crosses from neglect to unintentional corruption. I do think teaching will be in crises until salaries significantly increase whether that is by culling admin or raising taxes or both.
The difficulty with teaching is performance evaluation. I haven't seen a good way to do it, but without it you get a bunch of bums with lifetime job security. I wouldn't mind paying my good teachers from back in the day a lot more, but there were almost as many lazy bums who had us do busywork and photocopied the tests from the teacher's edition and just read the paper most of the time. And I went to a what was considered a good public school that people paid a premium to move into the area of.
my kids private school also fails to recognize the issue and has no plan..I think they consider it dumb luck to find any male applying...without competitive salaries to draw national talent...independent schools follow the public school trend here..
We see the same “dumb luck strategy” in mental health care James where hiring managers always rush into the room shocked when they get a male job applicant.
There is a meme going around FB these days that says we are reaping the policy of having the football coach teach civics...
I get what you are trying to say. Really.
But my sons (2 of them) and my daughter (just one of her) need GOOD teachers. Teachers who SEE them.
Most, if not all of my male teachers were just awful. Sexist, demeaning, told me I was stupid, hated it when I was smart in class and generally could not deal with a smart girl.
And yeah...I was in school in the Regan administration and it was NOT better.
"Most, if not all of my male teachers were just awful. Sexist, demeaning, told me I was stupid, hated it when I was smart in class and generally could not deal with a smart girl."
And then they yelled "This is MAGA country!" Total believable story, Michele Smollett.
What did you think about Jussie Smollet's story? Or Jackie's UVA rape story? Or the Duke Lacrosse stripper? Were those believable? Her story sounds like someone wrote a script for "evil white men misogynistically put down a spunky future girlboss" that could have been generated from ChatGPT.
More "men" won't fix anything as long as the entire system is geared against them. All you will get are men completely willing to go along with the globohomo agenda.
I absolutely agree that it would be beneficial for everyone for more men to enter the teaching profession. But I have not once seen you grapple with the *reason* for the decline in the number of male teachers. Teaching was, for many obvious reasons, one of the main avenues for female employment, period, in the 19th century, and that only increased in the 20th. And as more women entered the profession, more men left it. Teaching became, both culturally and in reality, a "feminine" profession, and therein lies the rub: American men tend to define masculinity, first and foremost, in opposition to femininity. Any characteristic or occupation in which women show increased interest or aptitude, over time, inevitably shows a near equal decline in interest from men. Any college of ed in this country would be overjoyed to see more male candidates. I see principals in my local school district who are doing everything they can to attract male paraprofessionals and lead them toward obtaining teaching certification (a pathway much quicker and less expensive than a traditional 4-year degree). *Men, by and large, don't want to be teachers.* (And, to be clear: increasingly, not a lot of women, do, either! And given the working conditions, I don't blame any of them!)
And then, of course, "feminine" professions in our society tend to merit low pay. Low pay, very understandably, just adds to the reasons education is an unattractive career for men. Very rightly, it makes many women educators and their supporters suspicious to see men advocating raises for teachers only in the context of increasing male employment in the profession. Teachers - male and female - have *always* deserved more than the paltry wages allowed them in the majority of states in this country. Given that advocating for raises absent accompanying efforts to change the cultural definitions of masculinity is unlikely to drive any real increase in the number of male educators, what would you prescribe? How do we encourage men in our culture to define masculinity on its own terms, separate and apart from the feminine?
Interesting how higher pay and more benefits is floated as a way to get men into teaching. Meanwhile the country is ok with keeping things the same because teaching is seen as "women's work" and why pay women more, right?. If the pay grade is good enough for women then why not for men? Anyway, this Youtube channel is dedicated to interviewing mostly ex-teachers from around the country and exploring the reasons why so many teachers are quitting these days. The pictures they paint are pretty dismal;
https://www.youtube.com/@TeacherTherapy
Being a male high school teacher is risking career and reputational suicide, though I wish it weren't so: https://jakeseliger.com/2014/09/08/why-dont-more-men-go-into-teaching-fear-of-the-accusation/
Cameras in the classroom could remedy that.
We should add a National service teaching corps that recruits retirees to teach middle school and high school. Of both genders.
Middle and high school kids would eat those retirees alive and drive them to an early grave.
Just got our 2 boys’ teacher assignments and thought of you. One of them has the second male teacher they’ve ever had. This is for fifth grade and his one and only other time was in pre-K Montessori at age 3. My nine-year-old has yet to get a male teacher.
I have a 15yo son who would make a terrific teacher. He loves kids and is so patient with them. When I think about the perfect job for him, it's middle school science teacher + basketball coach. But between the dismal pay and lack of autonomy, it just doesn't seem responsible for us to encourage him to pursue that path.
Teaching pays dismally because it's seen as "women's work".
I can absolutely understand your family’s sentiments and anxiety here. Yet, as someone who was great at teaching, and knew the risks - I still did it. It was one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done with my time.
Group level statistics are just that - they tell the story of a group - but not of any individual.
This is especially true of individuals who have something transcendent in them - prowess, passion, or other potency.
It sounds like your son has at least one of these!
You sound like a good parent; I hope what I’ve said here gives your family something more to consider. Good luck and good skill to you all.
Too little attention is paid to the remarkably low levels of autonomy for current teachers...
Couldn’t agree more that we need more male teachers but it’s essentially an unfunded mandate and the commenters here are in the minority. Broadly speaking the US doesn’t value education enough to pay for it. Unlike health care where we pay the most for the least compared to other developed countries in education we pay the least for the least. I am fortunate to have male friends who teach K-12 and they all went abroad to consulate school jobs first where they could bank funds to afford to survive on teaching salaries in the US. I’m optimistic we are at an inflection point in the downward spiral that has been public education. It used to be if a town wanted a teacher they built a house for them to live in. How about 0% federally backed mortgages for teachers and 0% student loans - as well as significant salary bumps?
"Unlike health care where we pay the most for the least compared to other developed countries in education we pay the least for the least."
What are you talking about? We pay more for K-12 education than almost every country: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd/education-expenditures-by-country. The only countries who significantly more per student are Norway and Luxemborg.
Great correction thank you. What is the reason we seem to constantly feel our schools are underfunded? Is it that other countries don’t use education dollars to fund public pensions, health care costs and sports infrastructure?
Not sure exactly. We seem terrible at cost controlling any government program compared to our developed peers. But as the child of 2 public school teachers in a major metro school district, the administrative bloat is insane. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of administrators at these big city district offices who do nothing of value and never even come within a mile of an actual student. There are also a ton of failed "technology in the classroom" initiatives. Our student to teacher ration is actually on the higher end: https://www.statista.com/chart/28158/student-teacher-ratio-in-selected-countries/, so that should be a cost savings. Sports may make a difference in high school, but we really don't spend that much on them before then, at least where I grew up. The point on health care costs might be an effect if it's not controlled for, though it's a fraction of a teachers salary and salaries a fraction of overall ed costs.
Fascinating as I’m usually aware of our global standings. The teachers currently threatening to strike in Oregon are basically saying the same thing about administrative bloat and positions that only remotely benefit kids directly. At some point it almost crosses from neglect to unintentional corruption. I do think teaching will be in crises until salaries significantly increase whether that is by culling admin or raising taxes or both.
The difficulty with teaching is performance evaluation. I haven't seen a good way to do it, but without it you get a bunch of bums with lifetime job security. I wouldn't mind paying my good teachers from back in the day a lot more, but there were almost as many lazy bums who had us do busywork and photocopied the tests from the teacher's edition and just read the paper most of the time. And I went to a what was considered a good public school that people paid a premium to move into the area of.
But, but, but would these be targeted to, gasp, males?
As a former teacher (at 2-year and 4-year institutions) in social psych, stats, and methods: yes to all of this.
The need for more Mr’s extends to social sciences, too - men are rapidly dwindling when it comes to post-baccalaureate degrees.
This causes serious problems not only in representation of profession but also representation of *perspective*.
The culture in the humanities, social Sciences, etc., is just becoming so anti-male. It's driving men out.
my kids private school also fails to recognize the issue and has no plan..I think they consider it dumb luck to find any male applying...without competitive salaries to draw national talent...independent schools follow the public school trend here..
We see the same “dumb luck strategy” in mental health care James where hiring managers always rush into the room shocked when they get a male job applicant.
There is a meme going around FB these days that says we are reaping the policy of having the football coach teach civics...
I get what you are trying to say. Really.
But my sons (2 of them) and my daughter (just one of her) need GOOD teachers. Teachers who SEE them.
Most, if not all of my male teachers were just awful. Sexist, demeaning, told me I was stupid, hated it when I was smart in class and generally could not deal with a smart girl.
And yeah...I was in school in the Regan administration and it was NOT better.
"Most, if not all of my male teachers were just awful. Sexist, demeaning, told me I was stupid, hated it when I was smart in class and generally could not deal with a smart girl."
And then they yelled "This is MAGA country!" Total believable story, Michele Smollett.
Michele said, "And yeah...I was in school in the Regan administration and it was NOT better."
What are you on about Critic? She was in school during the Regan years which was several decades ago. Her "story" is totally believable for that time.
What did you think about Jussie Smollet's story? Or Jackie's UVA rape story? Or the Duke Lacrosse stripper? Were those believable? Her story sounds like someone wrote a script for "evil white men misogynistically put down a spunky future girlboss" that could have been generated from ChatGPT.
Scott Galloway sucks, but I'm glad he's as coherent and, honestly, brave as you on this particular issue. Nicely done!