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 ??

If you're referring to my post Uptheanty I'm not sure where you get that make TA's are better educated? Superkeen and hardworking comes from first job rather than the fact they're male - in my experience NQT's (of either sex) are very similar. You're putting your own spin on what I said - if indeed it was my post you were referring to.

If our female TA's were just fresh out of Uni in their first jobs I'm sure they'd be just the same. But they aren't, they are older calmer mothers. And you can pretend all you like that it doesn't change peoples perceptions but it wasn't the middle aged female TA's who were organising a world cup tournament in break and lunchtimes for the past few weeks at our school.

I'm a bit bemused with all the gushing over the men (swoon! Men! Wonderful men!). Obviously, women are a bit rubbish, that goes without saying, but until ye start treating teachers - even the substandard women - with respect and pay them properly, lovely, tremendous, refreshingly brilliant men won't be most of the

I'm a bit bemused with all the gushing over the men (swoon! Men! Wonderful men!). Obviously, women are a bit rubbish, that goes without saying, but until ye start treating teachers - even the substandard women - with respect and pay them properly, lovely, tremendous, refreshingly brilliant men won't be most of the

Oh, sorry, don't know what happened there. That was the start of a post I decided against since it's not relevant. And the posted repeatedly.

I disagree men have a harder time and have to prove themselves more in education like many women do in similarly male-dominated environments. The statistics show the opposite- that far fewer men go into teaching, but once there, they tend to make headteacher pretty quickly. We had a terrible male headteacher at my dd's previous school, eventually everyone realized that but I think it took a few years before the gloss of having a 'strong male presence' as the head wore off, and actually he turned out a bit rubbish at instilling a respectful disciplined culture.

Men stand out, and are perceived as better at discipline, better at physical games and so on. This is true for some, my dd's had a great male care worker who was exactly that, so hands on and fun for the children, he stood out for those reasons. They also had another male care worker who was not like that at all, a bit drippy and didn't interact much. No-one will remember him. It's called 'confirmatory bias' where you find evidence of the things you always believed in the first place.

Well, since I did post that bit it looks a bit cowardly, I think, to not say what I mean, so here goes.

I find it interesting that every single time the topic of male teachers arises, there's a rush to say how essential and brilliant and necessary and better everything would be if only men were not underrepresented in teaching (which may or may not be the case - evidence from when they were not underrepresented doesn't inspire too much confidence), but funnily, I've never, ever seen men react in the same way to the idea that things might be much, much better if women were equally represented in, for example, politics.

Can anyone imagine it? "Oh, we must really have more women in politics! Lovely, empathetic women with real life experience of trying to balance a family and working life! Think of the spirit they bring, the compassion, the cooperation, the nuturing! How can we possibly have a social care system which isn't led at all levels by people who have been traditionally designated the default carers at all stages of life? We could benefit from that kind of leadership!" No bloody way would they!

We still live in a society where leadership and competence are still coded male, and women are still lining up to endorse the idea that where women are in a majority men are missing, whereas where men are in a majority, all's right with the world. It gets on my nerves. Especially in the context of teaching, which is a job that has shed status since men have stopped wanting to work in it. It's just a ladyjob now. Standards have risen at an incredible rate as women have taken over teaching. Literacy is more widespread now than at any other time in human history - massive gains have been made as the profession has been ladyfied. And do women teachers get respect for this? No. Way. On. Earth. I suppose I just wish it was possible for women to get the respect they deserve and not be treated like they'll do until men - lovely, brilliant, competent men - come back to rescue us.

Also, the idea that a sub-twelve year old boy is somehow unable to see a mere woman as an authority figure...

Thoughtful post, Apocalypse.

I don't care what sex they are as long as they do their job properly

My DD's primary school is always treated as somewhat of a novelty as we have quite a few male teachers and TAs. 5 out of 14 teachers are male, and I think there's around 8 male TAs and everyone always comments on how unusual that is

Both my girls have been taught by them, they are brilliant teachers/TAs, but then so were the female teachers and TAs they've had.

But encouraging men to do roles like TA, nursery nurse, care worker, secretary etc is part of the flip side of the coin, Apocalypse. It isn't just seeing women as perfectly competent managers and leaders, until society accepts that these kinds of traditionally female jobs are equally male that attitudes will change. Very few people get exposed to female CEO's or finance directors but very many have the attitude that men do "capable" jobs and women do "nurturing" jobs and until small children grow up to see around them people of both genders doing both jobs at the bottom end then there is no hope for the top end, because it perpetuates the myth that men and women are different and have different strengths whereas in fact people are different.

I have fought very hard to get to board level and believe me, the journey would have been slightly easier if there hadn't been an assumption that every young female who answered the phone was a secretary.

I have come across a negative attitude, one girl in my DD's class was moved to another school at the start of this year.

Her parents didn't want their DD taught by a male teacher as they thought it was weird.

kew

I have no words.

Actually Apocalypse I had a male General Manager who was exactly like that. He kept on and on and the board to recognise the skills and view point that qualified women could bring to the business.

So much so that a scheme was set up and Senior managers like myself were encouraged to mentor women with potential in the business to develop their career in a very male orientated environment.

He was a rarity and a diamond I realise now though.

(Ironically the female GM he replaced himself with before moving to a bigger position was a Queen Bee who alienated talented & successful women in the business that stood up to her, bullied my female line manager, and surrounded herself with yes men who would tell her anything she wanted whilst she flirted disgracefully with them. Oh and slept with a few of them behind her DH's back too. )

But two wrongs don't make a right do they - just because men don't do that, doesn't mean than women shouldn't discuss skill sets and fairness in the workplace.

OK - not very conducive to a discussion then.

Your comments are both sexist & ageist.

I have never come across female TA's who I recognise in your description.

Teaching is not a traditionally female profession. Feminization has been very recent and coincided with a severe decline in the status of the profession despite rising results. So it's actually not like women going into jobs with current status where women have never been in the majority.

Kids love them. Probably because they are a bit of a novelty. My dd had a male nursery worker as well. He was well liked. More men should do this kind of job IMO.

I can only talk about the female and male TA's I have known. The female TA DS has had personally (only 1) was excellent. An older woman with children, she was fantastic but she wasn't the one out in the playground organising the sport every break and lunchtime and she had been in post for nearly 10 years.

The rest of the TA's he's had have all been young men in their first jobs out of university. Who isn't keen to impress when they're in their first job?

We have no young female TA's at our school (that I can think of offhand).

The fact that you think I'm ageist and sexist actually made me snort with laughter.

I'm talking about peoples perceptions - I do not think younger male = better than older female. I'm talking about what people see. I judge DS's TA's entirely on their individual abilities and so far its a tie between one older woman and one younger man. But if it fits with your view of me I can pretend I liked the younger man better?

If you think organising sport at lunchtime makes a good TA then you are sorely mistaken.

I'm offended on behalf of all the TA's I know who work tirelessly to facilitate & support learning not to mention the pastural care.

Snort all you like, it may not be how you see yourself but it's all in black & white.

DS had 2 male 1-1 TAs in primary. One of them, A, was amazing, could see when DS was about to have a wobble and used a variety of techniques to distract him, we were really upset when we discovered the school hadn't renewed his contract after a term The other, B, was shockingly bad, seemed to have no empathy at all and behaved as though he was bored all the time. We were very happy when his contract wasn't renewed again after a term

So, I think what I'd think if I saw a male TA or indeed a female one is. Fuck, I hope they're more like A than B!

No but its one of the things which make a TA good for my DS.

And it does influence how people see you if you are visible in the playground - thats the thing when you're talking about perception which I was - it isn't necessarily true but it is what people perceive.

And if your offended on behalf of TA's at our school then you'll be being offended on behalf of a majority of young men. Who also work tirelessly to facilitate support and learning not to mention pastoral care as well as organise sport in the lunchtime.

Worked with three male TAs, all sampling the job before going into training for teaching. Two were excellent, the third was arrogant, refused to listen to or follow instructions/advice; he is completing his final year of training, shall follow his career with interest. In the same school there are two young (under twenty) female TAs, both daughters of existing TAs, (yes, nepotism); neither have any career ambitions and bring little to the job other than an extensive knowledge of nail varnish. Whatever happened to NNEBs?( National Nursery Examination Board; two years training in childcare, recognised qualification).

ds2's teacher in Year 5 and his TA in Year 6 were both fantastic they also happened to be male. His teacher in Year 4 was not a great match for him and happened to be female. But I don't think it is their sex that made them a good or a bad match but more their personality and interests. The male teacher and TA just happened to share his interests so could distract him when he was stressed by talking about "binary numbers" or "The hobbit" or "The Ancient Greeks" so he was relaxed enough to do a bit of learning. It is nigh on impossible for one teacher to be the best fit for all thirty children in her class whether male or female.

Excellent post by apocalypse.

Apocalypse, you are spot on- in jobs where women have taken them up, the jobs themselves have been devalued- if women can do them, they can't be that hard then can they? (I don't think this obviously, but that's the mind-set behind this). Think doctors, now we have a majority of females entering medical school, think lecturers, teachers and so. You go and look in the management/higher pay grades though, and it's still dominated by men, and the things the lower down women are doing (teaching, caring etc) are just devalued as achievements.

Thanks! It is something I've been thinking about for some time. I must confess, I'm really surprised by the number of women who think that the dearth of men in education is just a flip side to the dearth of women in better regarded and rewarded professions, both equally unjust, so why say there's any problem?

The reason there's a problem is that there are no structural or perception barriers to men teaching - they fled it because it was becoming associated with women, and women's work is grunt work. Where men do enter teaching, they are far more quickly promoted and are far more likely to be well regarded for their stereotyped strengths (as we see reflected on this thread) and they're far more likely to hold leadership positions because men are seen as leaders. This is exactly not what happens to women in male dominated industries.

God, I'm an obsessive when I get on my high horse. Sorry. Bit of a pet topic!