Female Teachers and The Teaching of Boys

[zanzibarmum]

I know the teachers on the site will not agree but does the largely female (most single with no kids?) teaching force struggle to understand our boys and engage them in learning. What are the views of parents.
As a mum of both girls and boys my experience is that many normal, well behaved boys get a raw deal from some of the teachers though it is not of course something you raise with teachers for fear of getting your head bitten off - I know my own sister who's a teacher had a go! Views

I'd just rather my children weren't taught be anyone - man or woman - with narrow stereotypical views.

Innit.

Evidence, Desiderata?

"Womem are subject to their emotions in a way that men, in a professional capacity, are not, when it comes to schooling." looks suspiciously like a personal prejudice substantiated by, well, bugger all.

Roffle at "overt feminine qualities"

I have a boy and tend to teach a lot of boys - but I don't think I struggle particularly with teaching girls.

My own ds is more like a girl, if we are talking stereotypes. Talked early, read early, gentle with toys etc.

I teach only boys since before having children.

if i had my druthers I'd never teach girls again as I did for a few yrs before present school.

OP sounds like she knows a lot about teaching from being a mum, been to school, and having a sister as a teacher.

Desiderata on Sat 24-Jan-09 00:22:32
"Well, apologies if my post made you wince, but I stand by it, all the same.

The number of female teachers who ran out the room in tears when I was a kid was not edifying."

Is this a British thing? I have never experienced this.

The only teacher I have seen close to tears was a man: nice guy but not very good at the local language and incapable of maintaining discipline. Totally gave in to his secondary classes and let them dictate the curriculum. But he was a one-off: most male teachers weren't like that either. And certainly no women that I can remember.

"Womem are subject to their emotions in a way that men, in a professional capacity, are not, when it comes to schooling."

??? We clearly have very different exeriences of the world.

The only teacher our class ran out of the classroom was a man.

The OP is talking about how female teachers engage with boys.

My step-son's primary class was very unusual in that out of 24 pupils, 22 of them were boys!!! It was obviously a good year for boys.

Over the years, the class was described as 'savage', 'bestial', 'impossible to teach' and unruly.

Those boys were none of those things. They were being taught by girly women, and not women with grit. A woman with grit, a female teacher with grit, is a marvellous thing. Boys are interested in different things than girls. A female teacher needs to understand that.

But most don't. And I would have preferred my step-son's class to have been taught by men, or women who largely think like men.

My sister-in-law is a deputy head mistress, and whilst she's extremely effective most of the time, when she's due on her period, she's noticably different. She shouts, she cries, and she's utterly irrational.

And this is a girl at the top of her game.

So, to my detractors, I don't really give a fiddler's fark. I'm a woman myself. I know what our strengths and weaknesses are. But at primary level, I would prefer a man to teach my son.

Or, if not a man, than a woman like myself. Not a girly wimpo.

I don't think that gender is an issue, if you have a good teacher.

my dd has a fab teacher, mother of two "big boys", I think she is a good teacher, sometimes I think teaching methods can favour boys/girls - finding the balance is a sign of a good teacher and a school that cares.

what I think really makes the difference for my dc's school is the small(-ish) class sizes and that support for children who need extra help is there too....

It has nothing to do with gender, just that some teachers can cut it and some can't!
A good teacher is reactive to the class, so if a certain approach isn't working, they change it. On the hoof. As a response to the instant feedback they are getting. This is proper reflective practice and should be well within the scope of all teachers, m and f.
Don't give me that gender sterotyping shite.

I agree with your post, Aefon.

Gender shouldn't matter, as long as the teachers are mentally prepared to deal with both genders themselves.

Boys learn in a different way, and anyone who can handle that is onto a winner.

Desiderata - are you a teacher?

Am very tempted to say something along the lines of "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough" - you clearly have no weaknesses, from the way you describe yourself: you are welcome to borrow some of my (lovely but not easy) boy-heavy classes and see what they make of you - and you of them.

Why shouldn't I give you the gender-stereotyping shite, yellowvan?

Isn't that what stereotyping is all about?

No Jane, I'm not.

But from your post, I would like you to teach my son

That's my point, surely?

Part of being a good teacher is knowing that your period is due and that you are likely to be a bitch from hell or a sobbing mess and then planning to allow for that.

I am a girly girl but also have a northern toughness and generally dont have many problems with boys. Although my two bottom set year eleven classes which were male dominated today may beg to differ.

That's interesting about the northern toughness, twinset

I'm from the north myself, yet live in the south. Maybe the difference is as vast as that between girls and boys!!!

Perhaps, I come from a very rough town and have taught in a very dificult school. My new pupils know where I am from and that has earnt me some respect especially from boys.

According to my classes when I get annoyed my voice deepens and I go very northern.

I have a southern toughness...

I dunno. I like boys. I like to teach them. I teach Science and I'm not overly fussed about presentation and such-like, which might have something to do with it.

If I had to choose a single sex school to teach in, I'd go for the boys for sure.

But do you make them draw in pencil, underline with a ruler. That really gets my goat.

I so agree about the underlining etc. My school has a rule about blue or black pen. I am an English teacher in an inner-city school in one of the most deprived areas in the country. I don't give a flying fig what colour they write in, as long as they write something and learn something!

Now this is where the thread should be, according to the OP.

I've been flamed (not for the first time), but we're now getting the responses that zanzibar was inviting.

I want fiesty women teaching at schools. Boys, generally speaking, like to build things and see matters in the abstract. They don't much care for fairy stories, although they will tolerate them. They want to know how dinosaurs rot, why mummies are wrapped in bandages, and how you can build a ziggurat out of a packet of Sainsbury's plasters.

Any woman who can pull that off is good for me!

I make them draw diagrams and graphs in pencil. And with a ruler. I am very strict about that.

Having marked exam papers, I know that's important. I don't want them losing marks because they're drawing ray diagrams freehand. But generally? Meh.

I overheard two year 10 boys bickering over me today.

boy 1 Miss is my RE teacher she is a legend

boy 2 Miss is my form tutor so she is my legend

Boy 1 but she teaches me 3 lessons a week she only sees you in tutor time

Boy 2 she teaches me and called me her little einstein and Im in her tutor group which has her name

Boy 1 looked at the floor

Boy 2 grinned

Twinsets head swelled.