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 ??

I think it's good. Kids need positive male role models as much as they need positive female ones.

Fab! I wish there were more of you. There is one male nursery worker in DS play school and he is adored by the kids, especially the boys.

The play school DS will be going to in sept has none :-(

When my dd was at primary school she had 1 male teacher (in the whole school) needless to say he was also the favorite of most of the kids. She's now left school but still to this day, when she sees him, they stop and talk.

There are a couple of male nursery assistants at DS' nursery. They regularly work with the oldest group but stand in in his room (2-3 years) sometimes and because they aren't the regular teachers for his room they generally do more hands on stuff (cuddling/story/play with the children) rather than the admin or "discipline" type stuff (whose meal is which/daily slips/talking down from tantrum). Even though it's not a common role for a man, I think there's still a bit of a stereotype about what men can do at primary and nursery level - they are seen as more in charge and more likely to be doing admin. So it's great to see the lads (yes, they are both quite young!) doing the hands on stuff.

I am always delighted to see males in teaching roles with my young son. I think the more positive male role models he's seeing from an early age, the better.

From my limited experience, it seems that the ones I've come across are above averagely motivated and able - I suspect that may be related to the need to be extra committed to overcome some of the prejudices out there about men working with young kids. And those aren't just from a child abuse perspective, but about traditional views on appropriate male/female roles.

I think men and women can both bring a lot to educating young people. A good gender mix is my ideal.

On your friend, I've found that a simple, "I don't appreciate you making fun of my job" has worked for me in the past.

I think its excellent. My mum was a teacher and often sent the boys in twos who misbehavioured for 30 mins with the male janitor as often this person was the only male influence they had. The boys always came back with no meaning. A lot of the boys in her school had different uncles weekly. Poor kids.

New not no

of course its a good thing

but I am sure you know you would have got this response from here

We have male and female teaching assistants at DC's school, I don't form an opinion on them based on their gender, but how good they are at their jobs.

I am surprised that anyone would especially in this day and age.

I would love it if almost all lines of work were at or close to female:male balance of 1:1. TAs included.

So long as you're calm, caring, patient, kind and empathic I couldn't care less what gender a teacher or TA is.

It's essential that both girls and boys have men in their lives. I wish there were more male staff in education at the younger level .
I had no father and the only men I knew I was petrified of . It took me into my early 20's to feel safe around men .

It is a great job and i wouldn't change it for the world so i do not really care about bad opinions!! i often get told by other staff that the kids love me and also am told i am really good at them so i dont need anyone's bad opinions i suppose

I live with the even rarer breed - male childminder!

Sadly some people are still incredibly prejudiced against men in childcare and primary age education

Should be no issue - although I had an absolutely shite male TA not long ago, but have also had one or two shite female ones.

Recently appointed a male TA, he was the best person for the job.

Actually we had the same number of men on the short list as women.

I would love my school to have male TA's, teachers or even male parent helpers!

Our current primary only has 3 male teachers and no male TA's.

some of the children feel alot more comfortable talking with me and the other male TA for some reason aswell so it is obvious they really love having males around

The great male TAs I have observed rarely take the role of enforcer, in fact the opposite is true.

Men who can show kindness and caring and a sense of fun can turn some children's perceptions of male figure = disciplinarian on it's head.

We haven't got any male TAs in our medium sized primary. But we have got 3 male class teachers and 3 male teachers in supporting roles (pastoral care type roles with occasional teaching).

I like seeing men in child-based roles. It is a novelty for kids in a lot of areas so they love male TAs/teachers/NNs/etc. Tell your mate he's a cockwad.

I'd like to see more Manny's, but unfortunately, it's harder to get men into nannying as a lot of families still won't consider them. I have interviewed with families who thought that I was "as good as" a male nanny (because I'm outdoorsy and a Scout leader) but wouldn't consider a manny

Our school doesn't have any.

There is only one male teacher in the whole school, the deputy head. The caretaker is also a man. All the rest are women.

The only thing I think is that it's unusual for male TA's in a school.

My wife is a teacher and I'd always bemoaning the lack of male role models in the nursery. I'm proud to say I have been a Grampy helper in two of my grandkids nurseries and looking forward to September when my next grandson is due to start. The teachers and EYW really like men going into help and I really enjoy doing so.

My son has cerebral palsy and had TA's throughout primary school.

He'd always struggled with school, not enjoying it, not making friends and not understanding the work.

Until he got a new TA. A young male who was absolutely fantastic with him. He helped him with his work, not just by doing it for him as other TA's had done, but by helping him understand how to do it himself.

He helped him with friendship problems.

He also instilled a huge love of history into my son.

He was the best TA my son has ever had. The fact he was male was neither here nor there for either of us, although I think my son perhaps preferred having a male TA!

The TA my son had changed his life. He helped him so much and I'm eternally grateful to him for everything.

What matters is someone who is going to be passionate about the job and is keen to make a difference. Gender is irrelevant.

I really don't agree that its not relevant whether teachers and TA's are male or female. I also don't agree that it matters whether scientists or surgeons are male or female.

It matters that in professions that are dominated by one sex or another that we encourage more of the less dominant sex to take positions in it. Otherwise it reinforces in children's minds the stereotypes that some jobs are for men and some jobs are for women.

Its important that children grow up understanding that no job is closed to them except due to their aptitude or work ethic.