Male primary school teachers

BrendaN_f

Do they exist anymore? A school I was helping at started this week, and the only male staff member was the janitor!

Sh1tbag OToole

I know one who is just about to finish his training.

jimgoose

About 14% of primary school teachers are male, according the last figures I saw. What of it?

osarusan

My daughter's teacher is a man.

Also know another couple of male primary school teachers.

I have heard that the ration of men to women in the job is getting ever more skewed though, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Balmed Out

jimgoose wrote: »

About 14% of primary school teachers are male, according the last figures I saw. What of it?

I think its good for kids to have a mix of male and female teachers.

Shelga

Why don't they offer incentives to entice men to become primary school teachers, like they do for women in engineering?

Not that I think this is necessarily such a great thing... let the chips fall where they may.

But why are some professions endlessly pursuing and promoting equal numbers of men and women working in them, and others aren't?

ancapailldorcha

osarusan wrote: »

My daughter's teacher is a man.

Also know another couple of male primary school teachers.

I have heard that the ration of men to women in the job is getting ever more skewed though, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

The last time I looked it was 76% to 24% with more women than men.

The_Valeyard

There need a to be more male teachers in primary schools, need a healthy mix of both.

c_man

Shelga wrote: »

Why don't they offer incentives to entice men to become primary school teachers, like they do for women in engineering?

Tbh is there any female dominated profession in which there is campaigns/incentives to get males into...?

eviltwin

My son's primary school has at least three that I know of, a couple of male SNA's as well. There should be balance but the pay is pretty crap for a new teacher, apart from holidays there isn't much to attract people into it.

kneemos

c_man wrote: »

Tbh is there any female dominated profession in which there is campaigns/incentives to get males into...?

Should just keep a few for breeding and kill the rest at birth.

smash

c_man wrote: »

Tbh is there any female dominated profession in which there is campaigns/incentives to get males into...?

It's only on the radar of interest groups when it's a high paying job in a male dominated industry.

josip

Our son's mixed primary school has all female teachers.
Will a lot of kids then grow up subconsciously thinking that (primary) teaching is a job for females, thus skewing the percentages further?

biko

kneemos wrote: »

Should just keep a few for breeding and kill the rest at birth.

"Breed or Death?"

"Eh, breed please."

"Very well! Make him breed!"

"Oh, thanks very much. It's very nice."

c_man

kneemos wrote: »

Should just keep a few for breeding and kill the rest at birth.

Right, I'll take that a no then.

Barely There

Shelga wrote: »

Why don't they offer incentives to entice men to become primary school teachers, like they do for women in engineering?

They don't offer incentives to women to enter engineering.

Whoever 'they' are.

OneOfThem

Balmed Out wrote: »

I think its good for kids to have a mix of male and female teachers.

Why, out of curiosity?

newport2

OneOfThem wrote: »

Why, out of curiosity?

Perhaps to get a more balanced perception of things in life, along with helping to prevent gender stereoptypes from an early age. I also think it would help boys do better in school.

Harry Palmr

OneOfThem wrote: »

Why, out of curiosity?

To know that men exist, many fathers are largely absent esp in the working week.

tastyt

I know 2 of my friends after completing college who would have loved to go back primary teaching and had honours Irish. Very clever lads with a good temperament for the job. They were made do an oral Irish interview and didn't get a place because of this.

They had the Irish honours but said some of the people ( mostly female ) at these interviews had spent weeks in the gaeltacht preparing for these interviews and that the whole competition was all about the Irish, according to people there who were interviewing for the third and fourth time.

It's a joke of a system that such an outdated language has such a huge effect on the quality of person we get to teach our children.

One eyed Jack

newport2 wrote: »

Perhaps to get a more balanced perception of things in life, along with helping to prevent gender stereoptypes from an early age. I also think it would help boys do better in school.

Is everything in life actually balanced? Of course it isn't, so this 'perception' of everything being balanced in life is your own perception really that's at fault. Who's actually guilty of gender stereotyping in spotting these perceived imbalances based on gender in the first place then? Why should anyone be encouraged to go into a career based on their gender and not on their ability or their desire to enter that profession?

Are boys not doing well in school? Is this solely based on their gender? I don't think it is, but you can reduce any argument down like that to the point where it becomes absurd.

Harry Palmr wrote: »

To know that men exist, many fathers are largely absent esp in the working week.

I'm sure children are aware that men exist. I'm absent during the working week, so is my child, because he's in school, where he mixes with other boys and girls and he has both female and male teachers, well, at least those teachers who are present during the working week.

arayess

jimgoose wrote: »

About 14% of primary school teachers are male, according the last figures I saw. What of it?

what of it? indeed.

My son had bar one year all female teachers in primary. some good some average and one a complete donkey

the year he had a male teacher he thrived because he could relate to him.
I think young boys need male teachers not every year but some years in their formative education.

NachoBusiness

c_man wrote: »

Tbh is there any female dominated profession in which there is campaigns/incentives to get males into...?

I've sent in seventeen job applications for a job as a dancer at Lapellos. Not one reply.

Shelga

Barely There wrote: »

They don't offer incentives to women to enter engineering.

Whoever 'they' are.

There are actually, plenty of these incentives. When I was in sixth year, looking to get into engineering, a lucrative scholarship was offered to the girl in the school who got the best Leaving Cert results in maths and science subjects (offered by the Institute of Engineers in Ireland), worth around €10,000 over the 4 years in university. The funding continuing throughout college was subject to her maintaining a 2:1, if I remember rightly.

No such reward was given for a male in the class who averaged, say, 85%.

It struck me at the time as deeply unfair, and I still hold that opinion. Now, 10 years later, I work as a manufacturing engineer and am constantly bombarded with STEM propaganda aimed at luring women into these professions with money and rewards. This is just one such example: http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681999/challenging-girls-to-get-involved-in-stem-with-a-10000-incentive

If a nursing course offered a man money for achieving average results, simply because he's a man, and didn't give female students anything, they would rightly be decried as sexist. No such incentives do seem to exist for female-dominated professions; I'm wondering why. Probably because teaching and nursing are seen as vocations and there's not much money to be made in them, whereas the CEOs of private engineering companies need as wide a workforce as they can get, ultimately to increase profits.

I'm a woman, btw.

OneOfThem

arayess wrote: »

what of it? indeed.

My son had bar one year all female teachers in primary. some good some average and one a complete donkey

the year he had a male teacher he thrived because he could relate to him.
I think young boys need male teachers not every year but some years in their formative education.

I'd only one male teacher in primary school. For first and second class. A female teacher before that. And two after that. One for maths and another for the other subjects (just how my school did it.) Kicked ass in Maths with that female teacher. She was a bit of a hard bitch, but fair and a really good teacher. Can't say I related to the male teacher too much. Had a cock (presumably - no homo), but beyond that, not really that I was aware of, 50 year old kinda religious guy from Mayo, married with kids, not much to relate to for an 8 year old kid from Tallaght. Well... there was the cock.

This was an all boys school btw. A male teacher had one of the other 2 forth, fifth and sixth classes, when I was in those years. Don't remember them out performing the other classes. When it came to entrance exams for secondary, or that national performance test thing that I remember in forth class.

I dunno, I accept this is all anecdotal. Are there any reliable studies or whatever in relation to students performance as related to the gender matching or differing from their teachers?

newport2

One eyed Jack wrote: »

Is everything in life actually balanced? Of course it isn't, so this 'perception' of everything being balanced in life is your own perception really that's at fault. .

No, everything in life isn't actually balanced and that is not my perception of it. But then that's not what I said, nor does having a balanced perception mean that you see everything as "balanced".

The Randy Riverbeast

I'd agree with another person, the amount of women in it probably makes boys think that it's a job for girls. Secondary school doesn't seem to have this issue or at least it isn't as skewed.

Barely There wrote: »

They don't offer incentives to women to enter engineering.

Whoever 'they' are.

There's scholarships and awards offered to women in engineering with the idea being that you do your work placement or project with them so you are more likely to work for that company.

There is a huge demand for women engineers for the reason of being female.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Hardly surprising as being a primary school teacher is basically like being a baby sitter at times I would think.

One eyed Jack

newport2 wrote: »

No, everything in life isn't actually balanced and that is not my perception of it. But then that's not what I said, nor does having a balanced perception mean that you see everything as "balanced".

Did you mean a perception of 'equality' then? Because I don't think that applies either. Having equal numbers of men and women in any profession isn't in any way useful in giving a person any 'balanced perception', that's simply the perception of gender equality in a given profession.

newport2

One eyed Jack wrote: »

Did you mean a perception of 'equality' then? Because I don't think that applies either. Having equal numbers of men and women in any profession isn't in any way useful in giving a person any 'balanced perception', that's simply the perception of gender equality in a given profession.

Nope. I mean a balanced perspective as in being able to look at things objectively. The bigger the variety of perspectives given to someone getting educated, the more balanced a perspective the person educated will have of things, allowing then to look at things from a variety of angles. Which effectively allows them to see how balanced or unbalanced things in life often are for themselves.

In general men and women can often have quite a different perspective on certain things, so in my opinion it's better that education receives inputs from both of these. You obviously don't agree, so let's just agree to disagree

jimgoose

Harry Palmr wrote: »

To know that men exist, many fathers are largely absent esp in the working week.

Which sends the correct message. Fathers go to work and earn money. That's what men do. And rather than getting into yet another Equal Opportunities flap maybe we'd do better to accept that many men simply do not yearn for a job confined to a classroom teaching small children.

RWCNT

I remember when I graduated I was encouraged by my University's career advice people to get into teaching as there was a great call for males in the profession. This was confirmed by my Stepfather who was a head teacher and as such was the one doing the hiring. I'm not sure how it is in Ireland but men in the UK seem to be benefitting from positive discrimination when applying for roles. I'm alright with it as I agree with the poster above me about a more even mixture of male and female teachers being beneficial to the kids.

One eyed Jack

newport2 wrote: »

Nope. I mean a balanced perspective as in being able to look at things objectively. The bigger the variety of perspectives given to someone getting educated, the more balanced a perspective the person educated will have of things, allowing then to look at things from a variety of angles. Which effectively allows them to see how balanced or unbalanced things in life often are for themselves.

In general men and women can often have quite a different perspective on certain things, so in my opinion it's better that education receives inputs from both of these. You obviously don't agree, so let's just agree to disagree

Well no, I actually do agree with the general point you're making now that I understand it, but I don't think you could simply suggest that if there were a gender balance in teaching (at any level really), that it would have any effect on students perception or their perspective on things in life.

I agree with you that more perspectives equals more balanced output, but that's why teachers have not only got the curriculum, but students should be encouraged to study outside the curriculum too. If a teacher is employed to teach the curriculum, then their personal opinions aren't actually relevant or useful in teaching children.

People have often tried to encourage me into teaching, suggesting that I'd get employment easily on the basis of my gender. I'd sooner be assessed on my abilities, and even then I wouldn't want to enter the teaching profession as I know what's involved, and whatever benefit there might be to students on the basis that I have a cock rather than a vagina, it still doesn't mitigate the fact that I simply have no interest in all the other mind-numbing bureaucracy involved in the teaching profession.

ididthemathtom

A friend of mine, just finished sixth year, has gone to wales to study primary teaching (doesn't know any Irish). The number of women who turned up for interviews was absurd compared to men, but that actually upped his chances, because people want things more balanced. There aren't as many men in the profession, no, but those that are there typically do quite well. There are incentives in the form of easy employment.

My primary school was apparently quite balanced, as from what I recall it was about half and half.

_Brian

I was talking to a friend recently who is in college, she had only female teachers in national and secondary and both were all girl schools.
She is very honest and says she has problems relating to and interacting with male lecturers. She says she wouldn't consider similar schooling for her children.
It's something I'd never thought of.

castletownman

Without sounding sexist, I genuinely believe that there should be a male teaching presence in every primary school (obviously the one's with multipe teachers) if only to promote physical education and sport to the children. Now I am not saying that females can't do that job, but it's surely not a stretch of the imagination to suggest that fellas would be better equipped and knowledgeable (and more interested) in that regard.

Compulsory physical education and sports activity a couple of times a week= less childhood obesity.

North Cork Star

In Mary Immaculate College at the moment and I can say there is a slight rise in male population in the college. Currently in my year there are 120 male teachers out of about 410 students.

ProfessorPlum

castletownman wrote: »

Without sounding sexist, I genuinely believe that there should be a male teaching presence in every primary school (obviously the one's with multipe teachers) if only to promote physical education and sport to the children. Now I am not saying that females can't do that job, but it's surely not a stretch of the imagination to suggest that fellas would be better equipped and knowledgeable (and more interested) in that regard.

Compulsory physical education and sports activity a couple of times a week= less childhood obesity.

That's not just sexist, it's stupid, on several different levels.

KungPao

Most men don't want to spend their day singing the alphabet song over and over again. And if a girl has some issue like peeing herself or something, it'd be panic stations...red alert.

Not to mention that niggling feeling that people may think you're a bit of a Jimmy Savile. Sad but probably true.

While it would be good to have more balance its not everything values and attitudes about male and female roles are learned in the family fist.

Not doing a job because your male and are concerned that someone might think you a paedophile is that really a widespread concern.

josip

North Cork Star wrote: »

In Mary Immaculate College at the moment and I can say there is a slight rise in male population in the college. Currently in my year there are 120 male teachers out of about 410 students.

For some reason the name of that college jars with me more than something like St. Pats.
Illogical, I know.

babyteeth

I dont care if the teachers are male or female. I do care if they are any good. Its one of the most important jobs there is and it should not be acceptable to allow bad teachers to continue for years and years

DEFTLEFTHAND

I briefly thought about doing secondary teaching at one point whilst doing Arts. In my LC year a huge number of girls had designs on doing Primary, unfortunately I remember a lot of tears on results night as most made a complete hash of the Irish exam. I think some went over to Wales, Bangor iirc to do it there, others repeated.

KungPao

babyteeth wrote: »

I dont care if the teachers are male or female. I do care if they are any good. Its one of the most important jobs there is and it should not be acceptable to allow bad teachers to continue for years and years

Reminding me of this from The Armstrong & Miller Show:

"Good enough to get a degree but not good enough to get a job? Be a teacher".

freshpopcorn

In primary school I had four male teachers and two female teachers.
When we were in 6th year our careers advisor recommended that people do primary teaching because guys might it find easy enough to get a job.
What was the opinion on the majority of the class. We did not want to put up with screaming children for the rest of our lives.
I've a female relative who is sports mad. She's also a primary school teacher. The school has got to county finals/won commotions in soccer/hurling/football/etc. There was a position in the school for a teacher and principal gave it to a man. This guy was meant to big into sports and trained all these teams. My relative was delighted because she would have a guy who was sports mad in the school.
What did he do? Nothing, he wasn't willing to give up any of his lunch time/time after school in order to do training and always and found issues with everything.

R.D. aka MR.D

KungPao wrote: »

Most men don't want to spend their day singing the alphabet song over and over again. And if a girl has some issue like peeing herself or something, it'd be panic stations...red alert.

Not to mention that niggling feeling that people may think you're a bit of a Jimmy Savile. Sad but probably true.

I'm a teacher of children from 7 to 19 and so is my OH. He is by far a better teacher of kids than me. He has a ton of nieces and nephews that he was taking care of since he was a young teenager.

He has patience and empathy way beyond anything that I'll ever achieve.

In fact, the best teachers of little kids (3-7) that I've met have been men.

Also, a child is a child so a girl peeing herself isn't any different to a boy peeing himself.

namloc1980

Not a single male teacher in my child's school of about 450 pupils.

babyteeth

Its a very well paid job when you consider the number of days worked per year. I think we should have a high standard for our teachers

jimgoose

KungPao wrote: »

Most men don't want to spend their day singing the alphabet song over and over again. And if a girl has some issue like peeing herself or something, it'd be panic stations...red alert...

Nonsense. Utter bollocks to have a grown man half-afraid to deal with something like that because of a bunch of faux-outraged fear-luvvies. And I happen to like the Alphabet Song. :cool:

Chemical Byrne

Mf gf is a teacher in a primary school of 700 odd kids. The only man there is the janitor.

Tea-a-Maria

My brother is a primary teacher, and a damn good one by all accounts.There is a surprisingly large amount of male primary teachers from my (very small) hometown. One or two trained, and then the rest copped that its a great job if you're into GAA and like to travel. :pac:

It's still pretty bad nationally, I remember my brother telling me the male to female ratio was about 1:10 when he was training in college (about 6 years ago)