Mr. Teacher

grasshopa · 2016-04-29T06:09:25+00:00

Speaking as a male who considered a career in education I can tell you what chased me off of the career path.

I was in 7th grade at the time. Jr High. History teacher(male) had just been suspended without pay because two students accused him of inappropriately touching them after class. Throughout all of 7th grade the entire school thought he was guilty, including faculty.

Then it comes out that the girls had been lying. Turns out one of them got a bad grade and so decided to file a false complaint and convinced a friend to do the same. 8th grade comes around and he was reinstated ( no back pay ). Turns out the guy is the best damn history teacher I'd ever have. Shit, years later I'd go back to him for help on highschool and, later, college history classes. He was amazing.

But that always stuck with me. How he was treated; how the school treated him. How it only took the word of a couple 13 year olds to turn this guy's life inside out. Even then I remember thinking, "If this had been a woman none of this would have ever happened".

I learned that lesson well and steered myself into a career which doesn't carry so much liability with so little pay.

KrisK_lvin · 2016-04-29T06:13:26+00:00

Not so keen on the explanations given under the section Why Don't Men Teach? - basically, it seemed to be arguing that women’s work in elementary schools is undervalued and men don’t value women therefore ^edit [they] don’t become elementary school teachers because they ^edit [don’t] value the job and/or ^edit [they consider that] their ‘masculinity is too fragile’ and so they avoid joining a ‘girly’ profession.

It also makes the sexist, Feminist argument that:

Increasing the number of male teachers isn't primarily about providing more role models for boys […] "If you're working in a community that's 50 percent male, then your staff should be 50 percent male," says [Kitt Cox, program coordinator for the Massachusetts Family Network].

and

"If we had diversity in our workforce," says Just Holm, preschool manager with the City of Cambridge, "it would naturally create diversity in the activities and curriculum." This would create an environment in which both genders could succeed.

So again, this is men being invited into Elementary education not really for the sake of boys, but for the sake of girls so that both genders could succeed - notice “could” there suggesting it’s a remote possibility, not a present actuality (i.e. it’s implying that girls aren’t succeeding now)

… but, there was a lot other stuff in there that was very eye-catching:

[Just Holm, preschool manager with the City of Cambridge] has also started training female staff about what it's like to be a man in early childhood education, and how classrooms and schools might be too woman-centric. "I was amazed," he says, "at how little women knew about men.”

And this:

Young men considering teaching, says Washington, are concerned about potential abuse allegations and that they might be seen as pedophiles, even for accepting hugs or comforting kids. This, along with other prejudices that too often come along with the job, can wear male teachers out …

And the-e-e-e-re you go.

garglemesh42 · 2016-04-29T09:28:16+00:00

[deleted]

What is this?

Title	Mr. Teacher
Author	lumloon
Upvotes	11
Comments	10
Date	April 29, 2016 4:49 AM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/4gxxf5/mr_teacher/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/mr-teacher.950645 https://theredarchive.com/post/950645

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