What is your opinion of male teaching assistants

[BobbyJones28]

I am a male teaching assistant in a primary school and I have signed up here to see opinions of this..

I have a friend (close-ish) that make jokes about it being an odd job for a guy so AIBU to keep getting fed up of it now!!!

What is other peoples opinions Male Teaching Assistants ??

[usualnamechanger]

Think you will never get it.

[GenuinelyMaryMacguire]

Working as a teacher in the inner city over 20 years, I met many male teaching assistants. Didn't think anything of it, they were fine or not fine, just like everyone else.

[Delphiniumsblue]

I get your point,mytwoblackandwhitecats, but I still think that the classroom should reflect the real world and there should be an equal male/female balance- sadly the younger children don't get much experience of men in the classroom. I agree that if the pay was higher you would get more -but people will get the ingrained idea that nursery workers and infant staff should be women, if that is what they got at a tender age.

[StatisticallyChallenged]

I think there should be more men in childcare just like their should be more women in the boardroom. I have a daughter, I want her to grow up thinking that her gender does not define her opportunities in life. If I have a son I would want the same thing for him. Seeing men and women doing all jobs is an important part of that ime and since one of the first places children are really exposed to working adults in larger numbers is in nursery /school then I think it's an important place to start with breaking down those barriers.


Thankfully the parents of the children dh looks after judge him based on the person he is and on how he does his job, how happy their children are, etc etc, rather than jumping to ridiculous conclusions like usual. I'm sorry, I appreciate that you may have personal reasons to distrust men but it is not reasonable to say that no men should be involved in the care of under 10s-because some of them are bloody brilliant at it and should not be defined by their gender over which they have no control. Would you accept someone saying they don't want a black person working for them as they are statistically more likely to be a thief? Or there is no place for women in policing because they are statistically less strong and slower runners? It's an unreasonable prejudice based on a factor over which someone has no control. Discrimination on that basis should never be acceptable.

[StatisticallyChallenged]

Excuse typos, my phone likes to randomly insert its own choice of there, their etc!

[ApocalypseThen]

Would you accept someone saying they don't want a black person working for them as they are statistically more likely to be a thief?

The problem with that argument is that it's a lie, though. Which is different to true (men are more likely to be abusers by a large margin) but also unlikely (because so few men are abusers).

[Joysmum]

So much for equality.

That's like saying women shouldn't work with men because of the very few who falsely cry rape.

[TheLovelyBoots]

You'd have to be pretty thick to disapprove of male teachers on the basis that they're more likely to be paedophiles.

I'd like to see more of them around in the younger years, I find it irritating that they seem to be called in for reinforcement as the subject matters get too tricky for the ladies (calculus, Latin).

[StatisticallyChallenged]

Apologies, I was typing on my phone and trying to be succinct. If you look at raw statistics (and I know that there are many, many reasons for this) then statistically, black people are arrested (and convicted I think, will look for stats) far more often per head of population than white people. That's neither racist nor a lie - look at the data here for example. So you could say "I'm not employing a black person as they are more likely to be criminals (rather than just thieves) by a large margin."

The point is it's no more acceptable to use that argument based on statistics than it is to say men shouldn't teach or be in childcare based on statistics.

[livelablove]

We must take parents fears of abuse of young kids seriously, there have been a lot of disturbing things come up recently. But we must tackle it without putting decent men off working with kids. For a man to be considered a potential attacker just because he likes kids is sexism at it's worse.

[Rooners]

There are recent appointments of a few male teachers at our primary.

I haven't met any of them personally more than once. Previously we only had one sort of part time sports teacher who was a bloke, the rest all female.

The only thing I have a problem with is that I am concerned in case our new (male) headteacher thinks that women can't do the job as well as men, this comes from my encounter with a much-lauded local primary head who was the most misogynistic person I have ever met, and referred to all the females in his school with the same term as he took us on a guided tour:

'Here comes trouble'.

This was directed at teaching staff, support staff and critically, girl pupils.

He refused to engage with any of my questions about anything. He talked, and wouldn't converse. I was 'just another female' obviously.

There was no way I would send a child there after that experience. Deeply unhealthy environment.

But saying that our HT doesn't show any signs of being a misogynist so I hope I can relax about this aspect and just take the mal teachers at face value.

One of them seems like a dick, the other one sounds alright.

[TheLovelyBoots]

The point is it's no more acceptable to use that argument based on statistics than it is to say men shouldn't teach or be in childcare based on statistics.

I agree. You have to consider the not only the ethics of using gender or race in assessing risk, but also the usefulness of it. The fact that men are more likely to be paedophiles does not mean that it's a useful starting point for assessing men, because the risk of an "average" man being a paedophile is actually quite small.

[LumieresForMe]

I actually think that usual pov is more spread than people think.
esp as men are usually seen as unable to care for a child. Just see how many thread there are on MN about fathers who can't be trusted with their own child for the day. That they need to be given a lost of what to do and when, the food needs to be ready otherwise the child who would eat crisps even if it's a 6 months old etc etc.
Or that if you leave the house with your DH and a teenager/older child, then you should expect the house to be a mess, no homework done bla bla when you come back from your weekend away.

If a dad isn't capable of looking after his own children, how on earth could you trust a stranger male to look after them as they should? Esp when they are little.

That's why imo, its good to see male teachers/TA/nursery nurse. It sends the message that men can do all these things and it's not a woman's job.

The issue re male teachers becoming HT much more quickly is, imo, also linked to the fact men tend to be more driven, or rather that they have been brought up to want to be at the top. But that's something that you can find in lots of different industries, not just teaching. I know for example that few of the women teachers I am in contact with want to be a HT. They will say they want to contact with the children etc... but also they just don't want to responsibilities coming with the job.

[WhoMovedMyVuvuzela]

It's a shame IMO that you have to ask OP. I'd like to see more male teachers/teaching assistants to address the balance. As a parent I would make a view of how they did their job based on, well, how they did their job...

[StatisticallyChallenged]

I agree that usual's POV is actually relatively widespread - when DH was setting up we made a decision to make it very, very obvious in our marketing that the childminder was a guy (I know other male CMs who advertise just using their first initial or a non gendered trading name to make it less obvious.) We didn't want to waste our time or anyone else's with people of that opinion coming for visits or inquiring and then not being interested just because dh is a male. But i have a (not close) family member who has openly said to others that she thinks it's weird/wrong. She barely knows DH, it's not based in him but on the 'fact' that she thinks men shouldn't work with children

[NewtRipley]

Lumieres

I was responding to this post:

"And it's important to remember too that these men will be given much less leeway and will be expected to be very good. Because unlike their female counterparts, they are more likely to get strong criticism if they are only half good.
Eg re following all the safeguarding rules, what would happen to a man if he isn't absolutely spot on with that?"

I agree that men have to be more careful when it comes to safeguarding, but I was responding to the first sentence; in other areas, IMO, some men can get away with being less organised, less reliable, less meticulous, because what is valued is their height, strength, sportiness.

Some, not all.

[Iffy2014]

It is indeed sad that opinions like that of a previous poster still exist towards males working with children.

To be honest, I don't think there's a good enough excuse to hold such black and white views like that. I would assume anyone who did is unintelligent and incapable of critical thinking. Synonymous with "All Muslims are terrorists", "All black people are criminals", "All women are over-emotional and weak".

[StatisticallyChallenged]

That's what I was getting at Iffy -I don't think that sort of black and white opinion about huge groups in society is acceptable

[BobbyJones28]

Enjoying reading the replies thank you for them!!
However usualnamechanger in recent times there are more women abusers aswell getting charged, so would you discriminate against women working with children?? No you wouldn't so i'm sorry but i disagree with your point, it is very sexist and insulting to people who are just trying to do a good job!!

[scottishmummy]

You should be judged on your competences and suitability for post
As parent I want competent staff working with my children
Gender simply isn't an issue,your ability is

[BobbyJones28]

scottishmummy i agree!

[Kerryp]

Urgh this thread started off so nicely and has ended up with arguments. I can see some of the points of view but still think male ta's are good. Have to take issue with those saying children need men and women to raise them, so silly, there are plenty of single parents (male and female) who do a damn good job on their own and the kids grow up fine. People will argue over anything.

[Kerryp]

What matters is that children are raised by the right kind of person ( kind and loving) not whether they are male or female.