DS asked why there aren't many male teachers

[IndigoBell]

DS2 (Y3) asked why there weren't many male teachers.

He said "Is it because women are cleverer?"

:(

We've got male HT, male lunchtime supervisor, male TA and male year 3 and 4 teachers. I agree they gather in certain schools and I also think it is brilliant to have them. Things are changing but sooooo slowly, if we don't show our kids that men can work with children and enjoy it and succeed then we will still be in this situation when we are supporting our grandchildren into school. More female High Court judges while we're at it. Career choices shouldn't be gender based they should be skill and personality type based.

I'd point out all the other gazillions of occupations where they are mainly men. My partner is a primary school teacher. People endlessly tell me how wonderful it it. I work in a male dominated field yet no one has ever told me how wonderful this is.

It is like scout leaders-they are frightened that their motives will be misunderstood. You can see why when on MN you get posters not wanting male nursery nurses to do part of their job, taking their 3 yr old to the toilet.
It is sad but the way of the world. I expect they also want more pay.

The male reception teacher that I know is wonderful at his job and he gives a completely different approach.

There are three male teachers and a TA at DD1's school.

DD had a male teacher in Yr 3 and will have another one when she goes up to Yr 5. Her swimming teacher was also male as is their PE teacher.

The Yr 3 one was good at instilling discipline in the boys - who were just beginning to get a bit full of themselves - but don't think he would have been warm enough when DD was little. Ideally placed by the HT in Yr 3.

My dd's school have 2 male teachers. Y4 and Y6. I think there should be more male teachers and ime have found children behaved better on the whole. It's important to move with the times as had we not already there would be no married female teachers as they had to give the profession up when getting married.

Two male primary teachers in my dd's school, one just sacked for gross misconduct and the other is of a very poor quality indeed with appalling attendance to boot. Think he is also under disciplinary process. Two of the male students in the last lot of trainees also failed their TP.

My DD1's teacher (Y1) is male and absolutely brilliant but apart from the caretaker he is the only male in quite a large school. The kids love him, and I think, for the boys especially, he is a really good role model. I've also noticed the past couple of weeks, a lot of the work placement student teachers are male, so maybe things are starting to change. When I was at primary school in the 1980s we had loads of male teachers - at least a third - and the HT was male. Maybe there are clusters of men in some schools and not others.

Male teachers - in primary at least - are still unusual, esp in the lower years. But they do exist.

There is one male teacher in DD's all girl prep school - he teaches mainly in Y5 and 6, but does do some work with all the year groups inc pre school.

There are two male teachers at the infant school I work at. One is an NQT and one is here on long term supply.

All three are great and well thought off.

Part of the reason for less male teachers in primary is that the scope for promotion is lower - less heads of department, etc. and the lower pay. Regardless of what we would like it to be like, male are often more ambitious and keen to move up the ladders to promoted roles and are generally more driven by money, plus longer term more men are likely to be the main or higher wage earner in a family. Not saying that some women are too or that there are some men who are not, but on the whole more men are. Primary school teachers doesn't offer as many options for this.

Out of 6 permanent full-time teaching staff/head, our primary has 3 males/3 females. OK, one of the males is the head and doesn't teach on a regular basis, but still an impressive mix.

I wish ds school had some male teachers, I think it's a positive model for boys, and gives a different balance to things. Only the head is male, all other staff are female.

way I have three male friends who are primary teachers, and three more acquaintances. Only one is a teacher at DSs school. I know vastly more female primary teachers.

I wonder if, aside from money/promotion issues, it's something to do with the way primary works, haveing the same class all day for a whole year? Especially with reception and year 1 aged children, it's almost like childcare, whereas secondary and the later stages of primary is more about the subjects.

Probably nothing to do with it, just a musing

*having

I wish my ds school had a male teacher, the ones we have are good but I feel alot of boys especially year 5 and 6 would benefit from a male role model as many have not got a father in the house and discipline leaves alot to be desired sometimes.

It is only a small church school and the only males are the caretaker and the vicar.

Boys need someone they can relate to, not just for sports, although that is good but they can't always talk to a woman teacher. I think primaries need to encourage more men and not make it so it is a clique of women. Women can do the jobs of men but when it comes to some sports usually men are better!

My children both had (the same) male teacher for Yr6, and he was their favourite,

DS's ambition is to be a Primary teacher, for Yr 5&6 preferably. He does a stint at a primary school every week (for this whole school year) as his "community service", has a job as a tutor, volunteers at a Youth group, helps at Holiday clubs etc all to add to his CV. He is determined to get into a top Uni, get a great degree and dispel the myth that men are only teaching primary because there is no other option etc. He does not want to work in private schools as they "are not exactly the real world Mum!" (his words before I get flamed, and he goes to a top grammar where most of his friends came from Private).

Every time he tells someone his ambition they all say stuff like "what a waste", or "why bother struggling for the A grades, you've already got your GCSE's" etc. Make him, and me, mad.

My 6yr old dd in yr 2 has the most wonderful male teacher. He is so much fun, the children adore him, as do the mum's

Unfortunately we found out on Wednesday he is leaving next week to go to a school nearer his home. A lot of the children were in tears when he told them

We do have about six male teachers at this primary school though. One of my favourite teachers at primary school that I remember was also male.

Because those that do go into teaching get fast tracked into Senior management. whether they are capable of it or not

You are right learnandsay there aren't any female headmasters but there are a high number of female headteachers ...in my school males are outnumbered 2-1

I know of far more female primary school headteachers than male ones.

Probably there are more male headteachers in secondary than females, but not sure if it is massively so.

We have quite a few male teachers now, hardly any when we joined the school 3.5 years ago and I think it's brilliant that more have joined. It's an independent mixed prep school.

The male teachers are all fantastic (not that the females aren't of course!). And the children are now very used to having them around and love them. It would be a real shame if any left. They are really up for everything - obviously the education side of things, but also all the fun/touchy feely/getting stuck in stuff as well. If it is dressing up day or whatever, they participate 100%. They also seem to be particularly good at the "firm but fair" approach and tread that careful line of being a caring teacher, but one who won't take any nonsense, really well.

Next step is we are trying to persuade a full time Dad, or two, to join the PTA as that (sadly) is an all female domain at the moment!

My H used to be a primary teacher but isn't any more. He left to set up his own business because of the rubbish pay in teaching. You can get deent money if you want to go down the headship route, but that also means you spend more time doing paperwork than actually teaching - and it was the teaching bit that he enjoyed. Shame he left, because he was very good at it.

They're all at my dc's primary school. Well, no, Still definitely outnumbered by female teachers but there are 5 male teachers.

I think it could be a case that men tend to go into teaching because they want to teach. Woman obviously do for this reason too, but also because it's one of the few professions that fit in with childcare, which does still tend to be seen as the woman's role to sort out and adapt a career around.

In my school cluster of 9 primary schools and 2 secondary schools only one head is male