Male primary school teachers

[Chuvak]

Hi all

I've joined Mumsnet specifically to post this thread and ask for your views.

I'm a 36-year-old married male with a 7 year old DD and I'm considering becoming a primary school teacher. I work full-time and will finish my part-time degree this year. I want to become a teacher for all the right reasons: I genuinely like children and education and have seen my daughter flourish at her school with good teachers.

My only concern is how males can be perceived being around younger children. The only time I hear about male teachers in the media is when inappropriate contact has been made which (perhaps not unreasonably) affects how the public view them.

I've done some finance workshops in primary schools as part of my current bank career and have spoken to teachers about their jobs, so I know how difficult their jobs can be.

So AIBU in worrying how I could be judged as a male primary school teacher?

P.S. I've posted on Mumsnet because the majority of interaction between teachers and their students' parents is with Mums.

Thanks in advance and please be honest with your views.

BertrandRussell

Or "lacking in empathy" in a woman where, in a man, the same behaviour is "firm".

I completely agree, Bertrand and Peng.

What is it with the gender stereotyping on the Primary board lately?!!

This is MUMSNET, people! Since when did we put up with shite like this?

There are some weird opinions on this thread.
Am quite surprised by the "Oh it's great to have a man" posts.

As far as I'm concerned, it's great to have a great teacher (and IME, the overwhelming majority of Primary school teachers are) - I couldn't give a flying fig if they are a man or a woman.

I've worked with male teachers at both ends of a very wide spectrum. Some have been inspiring, intelligent, diligent practitioners; one is now in prison for sexually assaulting a little girl repeatedly in his office. Their level of competence depends very little on the fact they're men and more to do with the qualities they bring, many of which I also see in the excellent women teachers I work with every day. I have two teachers in year 5 in my current school - one male; one female. The woman is highly capable, an excellent subject leader, naturally "gets" how to plan lessons that the kids love, and that iron out their misconceptions quickly. The man is a reasonable teacher, average subject knowledge, but not a patch on her. She holds the year group together despite him being the more senior teacher.
Yet when I do my daily morning/afternoon playground wander and chat with parents, it's overwhelmingly "oh Johnny LOVES Mr X" "Mr X is so much fun" "Mr X really knows how to keep Johnny in line."
While I respect all parents' perspectives and opinions, it's immensely frustrating.
Another man I taught with came in as an NQT with a previous career "in industry." His career plan, he informed the entire staffroom, was to be a head in five years. 18 months later and he was the one storming into the staffroom bellowing "for FUCKS sake, these FUCKING kids" because, shock horror, they didn't always do as they were told and he had no clue how to deal with that. Yet still, from the parents' point of view, Mr A was WONDERFUL.

My sons male teacher is the same as all the female teachers he’s had. Interested in puting hell s own individual style on teaching and trying to engage a class.

I agree that women are judged more harshly than men for identical behaviour.
A bugbear of mine is that any time that someone posts about mean behaviour by a girl of school age, someone will always reply "girls are bitches." A post about mean behaviour by a boy (and there are just as many) will never get that response. I've noticed it outside mumsnet too. I take exception as my teenage dd and her friends are definitely not bitchy.

Agree with others that I’d like to see more male teachers at primary level. Just as I’d like to see a better balance in many careers. If it’s what you want to do then go for it.

Yes, go for it. I'm all for encouraging men into teaching. I think it's important for children to see men in teaching, childcare and nursing - traditionally female dominated roles.

Go for it - we have a couple of amazing male teachers in my dc school

Go for it. My husband is nearing the end of PGCE secondary maths after 20y doing something else. Same reasons for choosing teaching as you. My son had had a male primary teacher this year and I think it's been great. There are three at his school - first time my son has been taught by a man. Really impressed. He also gets so much from male sports coaches outside school. I think it's so important, even for boys with a father and other male role models at home, to have external male role models.

And good luck!

My DC have had many teachers and our experience of male primary teachers has been fantastic, I think more men should go into this, go for it OP.

RavenWings

Teaching is not traditionally female dominated.

DS (Y4) has a male teacher. He is awesome. He would be awesome anyway, but he relates to the boys (18 in a class of 26) completely differently to the female teachers they’ve had.

Teaching is not traditionally female dominated.

Fine then, currently female dominated. I'm not interested in that, I'm just interested in having a more equal balance in the workforce.

Same applies when encouraging women into typically male professions.

My DH and 4 of my male friends are primary teachers.

They (to the best of my knowledge) have never had any comments from parents questioning their motives for choosing their careers. There have been a few condescending 'oh how nice, you're a man and a teacher!' comments, but nothing worse.

As a few PPs have said, the work/life balance during term time sucks, but hopefully the job satisfaction and holidays are a balance to that.

Good luck with your change of direction.

Primary school teaching is poorly paid for the hours you have to put in to meet the ever increasing demands placed on you. It’s female dominated because traditionally the holidays have appealed to women who have or are planning to have children. When there is an economic downturn or recession you see more men come into teaching because only then does it even remotely resemble an attractive career for them. I have been a primary school teacher for 19 years and have seen many many initiatives come and go and come back. I have worked with many male colleagues some of whom were excellent and some of whom were piss poor. I have also been managed by a couple of male teachers. One was superb the other sat on his arse in an office and seemed to serve no function but to shout (really really shout) at kids who had been brought to him in his role as behaviour lead.
I love my job. I’ve dedicated years of my life and a lot of my own money to serving the children in my care. Children couldn’t give a shit if their teacher is male or female. They just want somebody who is fair, who knows their subject, who is kind and prepared to listen, who values them. That’s a fucking hard ask and hats off to anyone, male or female, who goes into teaching now.

Well said.

A man I knew was a primary school teacher and two little girls made up lies that he had been touching them. It went to court and they broke down before they were due to give evidence(this was some years ago now). They admitted that they had been lying all along, I think they just egged each other on and got swept along on the tide.
He went back into teaching because he was completely cleared, but could'nt teach obviously at his old school. He started at another but his confidence was wrecked and he just couldnt do it anymore.
He also lost his marriage over the whole thing and ended up on the sick and not working.

Poor man. How awful.

It's normal to have makes in primary schools. In my DCs' (huge) international school, there were around 60% males in years R - 6 and around 70% in secondary.

But our local infant school in UK (years N - 2) only has female staff. You'll probably find more males in schools where years 3 onwards are included.

Good luck and enjoy your training.

we have quite a few male staff at the school I work at and I've never heard anything bad said about any of them because they are a man. 1 is a crap teacher so there is a bit of slagging him off, but him being male never comes into it.

1 of the others is ridiculously good looking and really very lovely, very much adored by the children and great fun to work with and we do hear a lot of things said about him, nothing nasty but poor bloke gets a lot of attention, whether he likes it or not, which can be pretty awkward. (Especially as judging by his face he does not like it)

I completely agree that being male has no bearing on whether you are a good teacher. As a male teacher myself, I get very annoyed about this perception, and I can understand why female colleagues get cheesed off. That said, it often has very negative repercussions for male teachers.

Female teachers can sometimes turn against male colleagues and seek to discredit them. I have been subject (in three different schools) to female teachers getting together and trying their best to make sure any faults and issues are made public. Specifically gossiping in the staff room and speaking to SLT secretly about any mistakes I've made. It's a kind of underhand and surreptitious bullying that often drives males away from teaching.

Please do think about the male teachers too. Not every male teacher wants to fast track into SLT and some just want to teach without the politics and nastiness.

My kid’s nursery and primary school have no male teachers at all. It became really obvious when we took them to a swimming class and a man was taking the lesson. They think it is the best thing ever to have a ‘boy teacher’. I have no problem with it at all, the sector needs balancing out.