Poll of the Day > Why aren't there male elementary school teachers?

(+) Yeah! (+)

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I've worked with many.
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I remember a few.

But yeah, there aren't many. I think women are just generally thought of as being better with children?

Currant_Kaiser posted...

I remember a few.

But yeah, there aren't many. I think women are just generally thought of as being better with children?

there's also a lot less initial bias against women when it comes to leaving a bunch of children alone with them.
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cuz matriarchy
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Women are better at multitasking with small children than men are.
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When I was in 1st grade, we had an old man 5th grade teacher at the school, but he retired by the time I was that old
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Because men don't like rubbing snotty noses with kleenexs?
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I've had two elementary teachers who were men. One went off to become a principal and the other makes music now.

Both were great teachers but stereotypical guy teachers, they were easy going, told a lot of jokes, and propped their feet on their desks when everyone had a test to do
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I was an elementary teacher, I taught 1st and 3rd grade. There was another male teacher at my school, and one more at another school in the district.

It's not very common, and honestly I only started teacher at the elementary level because I didn't want to start off teaching 7 classes a day (200-300 kids). My plan was to switch to secondary math and/or computers in a few years.

Elementary school teaching to some degree is more like babysitting, a ton of classroom management and especially for K-1, tons of songs/games etc.

If we had more then 1 teacher per classroom or at least a teachers assistant in the classroom, I think there would be alot more male K-5 teachers. The current setup though just makes it easier for a female teacher at those grade levels (usually).
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There were two at my school but they were both 6th grade teachers.
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Why do you keep making new users?

The world may never know.
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My 5th grade teacher was a dude. He was awesome. Had a system where if you did well on tests, you would get "money". Then once a quarter, he'd pay out with monopoly money, and we'd have an auction where he'd bring in toys, candy/cookies, and other stuff, and students would use their money to bid.
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Mostly because males don't want to teach elementary.

In my city getting a job at an elementary school is way easier if you are a guy as management actually wants schools to have a decent number of male teachers... But not many actually apply.
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Get friends, ok?
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myghostisdead posted...

I've worked with many.

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Because the get arrested for molesting kids? At least that is the story I hear about most male elementary school teachers.

In all honestly, it is probably more of an interest thing. Most men don't want to be around a bunch of young kids all day, whereas women tend to be fine with it. Same reason you don't see a lot of women in my job field. Yea, they can do it, but they probably would rather not.
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Dynalo posted...

Mostly because males don't want to teach elementary.

In my city getting a job at an elementary school is way easier if you are a guy as management actually wants schools to have a decent number of male teachers... But not many actually apply.

Heh, if you use that exact same reasoning with women and engineer/scientist jobs, you're called sexist.

It's much easier for a woman to find a job in those fields b/c they want to balance out the heavily male population but it remains by far male-dominated for the same reason as the above.

Meanwhile, at least in the area I live, they have "STEM" events all the time to teach technical skill and encourage young girls (and exclusively girls) to become scientists/engineers asking for volunteers that I refuse to take part in b/c I find them sexist.

I only ever had one, in grade 7, but there were several.
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Damn, i have a serious uncommon life lol my elementary was probably 60% -40% split. I remember 1st grade having a male teacher, 2nd grade i dont remember any males, 3rd grade had some but i had a female.. 4th grade had 2 male teachers that i can remember, i got a female. 5th grade i had a male teacher and there was another i believe. But the 5th grade teacher retired at the end of the school year. He was such a important teaher they made a reward for the school in honor of him. Principal was a male.
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In Japan, there are actually more male elementary school teachers than female ones. By quite a lot.

My gym and art teachers were male. My school had one male 4th grade and one male 5th grade teacher.
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Well, it's a mix of institutional bias, earning potential, natural gender roles, and tradition. Personally while I can recall having a few male middle school and high school teachers, I can't really remember any elementary ones although I know there were occasionally men in supporting roles.

miki_sauvester posted...

In Japan, there are actually more male elementary school teachers than female ones. By quite a lot.

Not sure how true that is at this point, but it's worth noting that women historically tend to be less represented in Japan's work force than in the US's work force.
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