Male primary school teachers

RWCNT · 03-09-2015 01:59PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:04PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:07PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:08PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:21PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:21PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:32PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:42PM

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.

03-09-2015 02:51PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:52PM

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 · 03-09-2015 02:52PM

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 · 03-09-2015 03:03PM

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 · 03-09-2015 03:11PM

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 · 03-09-2015 03:38PM

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 · 03-09-2015 03:40PM

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 · 03-09-2015 03:45PM

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

babyteeth · 03-09-2015 03:47PM

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 · 03-09-2015 03:47PM

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 · 03-09-2015 03:50PM

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

Tea-a-Maria · 03-09-2015 04:04PM

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)

Chemical Byrne · 03-09-2015 04:06PM

Is it a shít paying job though? What would a teacher with, say, 10 years experience be on these days?

fleet_admiral · 03-09-2015 04:07PM

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

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

Are you saying men are incapable of minding children?

fleet_admiral · 03-09-2015 04:10PM

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.

There should be men teaching in montessori schools and creches too. I also believe children (both boys and girls) should be taught home economics from junior infants to learn the benefits of healthy home cooking

Chemical Byrne · 03-09-2015 04:14PM

Whatever about primary schools, I think most men who might like to work with kids are frightened away from those jobs by the potential for personal and professional ruin which would result from suggestions of impropriety. Despite how wrong it is I would strongly suspect that a lot of parents would not feel comfortable sending their kids to creches where there are men working and consequently those places are very unlikely to hire guys as it would be bad for business.

fatknacker · 03-09-2015 04:15PM

c_man wrote: »

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

Like highly paid ones?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 03-09-2015 04:17PM

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Is it a shít paying job though? What would a teacher with, say, 10 years experience be on these days?

10 years = 45k

fatknacker · 03-09-2015 04:17PM

smash wrote: »

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

Of course it is. Who strives for a low paying job?

StonyIron · 03-09-2015 04:18PM

The_Valeyard wrote: »

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

The same should apply to the intake of pupils too. Same gender environments are kind of weird, in my opinion anyway.

Daith · 03-09-2015 04:23PM

StonyIron wrote: »

The same should apply to the intake of pupils too. Same gender environments are kind of weird, in my opinion anyway.

I thought same gender schools tended to produce the better results? Though of course there could be other factors.

blackwhite · 03-09-2015 04:24PM

Tea-a-Maria wrote: »

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)

I'm sure he hated that :pac:

Male primary school teachers

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