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What do you think of male primary school teachers?

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I'm doing Primary Ed. at Uni in September, and I've had years of experience in a primary school, and I was so shocked at the lack of males teaching. I can kind of understand that people see it as a female dominated profession, but that doesn't mean that men aren't capable. I guess a lot of the time, a man who is a primary school teacher can be mocked, which is sad really. One of my best teachers from my Yr 4, was male.

I'm not sure if this is true, but aren't they giving more financial incentives to encourage males into the profession? just something I heard

Reply 21

GrantG

So if three females and a male went for an interview for a job in primary school teaching the male has the advantage? :biggrin:

wicked

Bump

Original post by GrantG

So if three females and a male went for an interview for a job in primary school teaching the male has the advantage? :biggrin:

wicked

Yeh, no matter what his level of competence in comparison to the women, just having a winky will be ticking an extra 'desired attribute' box.

Good innit.

Reply 24

Aspiringlawstudent

There wasn't a single male teacher in my primary school.

Reply 25

RJ555

Original post by the bear

i think they are incredibly brave to do that job in today's hysterical climate...

only about 1 in 20 primary teachers is male... even fewer classroom assistants.

good luck to them

This, I think its a very honorable career choice.

IMO, the lack of male teachers in primary schools is a disturbing trend, I think the boys are being let down in education due to the lack of male role models. To me its not surprising boys are judged as "less mature" and more disruptive when they reach high school or have lower grades; they've only experienced education in a feminine environment/setting. From a young age learning and academia is being subconsciously gendered as "something for girls".

I think The Bear is correct that media hysteria over child predators has pushed men out of the career (particularly high profile cases like the Soham murders/involving school janitors etc). Of course there were recent examples in the press disproving the idea that sex offenses are a solely male crime.

But yes, if you think you can make a difference/are a good teacher then go for it! I'd imagine any teaching is a rewarding job. :smile:

It is an intimidating situation though with the whole distrust and witch-hunt, the other day I was walking passed a school and an upset child had dropped his toy dinosaur outside the railings out of reach. I picked it up and put it on the railing for him only to be met with a "OII! WHAT ARE YOU DOING" by a man in car. I'd imagine if I was a young woman in a dress there'd be no issue. :rolleyes:

Can't do right for doing wrong!

Reply 26

wikiellie

I don't think there's anything wrong with male primary teachers at all.
We had many at my primary school, and there were all brilliant and very kind people :smile:

Reply 27

RJ555

Original post by Aspiringlawstudent

There wasn't a single male teacher in my primary school.

We had one (another guy left after a year) with about 14 female teachers. He only taught the oldest kids though, years 5 and 6 so by the time we had him as a teacher we were nearing high school age. This was in the 90s though, I wouldn't be surprised if there are none now.

EDIT: Out of interest did anyone see that programme a few years back with Gareth Malone where he went in to teach literacy to boys? I think that quite relevant to this topic, the female teachers had a highly critical and skeptical attitude towards him (I guess thats another problem male teachers face), but in the end the kids came on in leaps and bounds. They were obviously missing something from exclusively female teaching.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 28

madders94

Nothing wrong with it at all. I think this whole "they're paedophiles" thing is awful. Women can be paedophiles too - why aren't all women who want to be primary school teachers seen as potential paedophiles? Good on you for wanting to be a primary school teacher, I'm sure that particularly the boys in your classes will benefit from having a male teacher because at mine, they were all female with the exception of the PE/technology teacher, and I think the school suffered because of this.

Reply 29

CherryCherryBoomBoom

I wasn't even aware that there was any strange stigma about them. When I was at primary school, I had a few male teachers and saw them as just as normal and good at their jobs as the female teachers :yep:

Reply 30

alexsasg

There should be more of them. I don't see why it's weird at all.

Reply 31

MovieMoments

No problem with it at all! Go for it :-) Just remember that kids can be little...pickles at times. As long as you remember that they will not always do what they want you to do, and more often than not, the opposite.

It'll be great and there is no problem with guys being primary school teachers. Enjoy!

Reply 32

MovieMoments

Original post by RJ555

We had one (another guy left after a year) with about 14 female teachers. He only taught the oldest kids though, years 5 and 6 so by the time we had him as a teacher we were nearing high school age. This was in the 90s though, I wouldn't be surprised if there are none now.QUOTE]

No, we had far more of a 50/50 split with two classes in a year group and one male and one female teacher. This wasn't an inclusive requirement of the school or anything, it was just the general make up and I think it really benefitted the students to have additional role models outside of their parents for each gender.

Reply 33

ihaveyourcat

Original post by GrantG

That's middle school? :B

Is it? I don't know I never went to middle school
In my area, primary school is reception to year 6 and secondary school is year 7- 11

Reply 34

mrshinyshoes

We need more of them! My primary school had 1 male teacher who taught me for like half a year.....rest of the time was female teachers, who most of them didn't have sons so they treated the boys like we were rubbish compared to girls :/

Peados.

I don't get the problem? :confused:

For 3/7 years at primary school I had male teachers, it's normal...?

EDIT:

Original post by CherryCherryBoomBoom

I agree with this, I've never encountered this stigma before, and tbh it seems ridiculous. I actually know someone training to be a primary school teacher, he's hardly a peado :lolwut:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 38

littlemissmidget123

Original post by GrantG

What GCSEs do you need? 5 A-C including core science, Eng Lang and Maths ?

I wouldn't know - I only took 6 gcse and igcses in the core subjects on top of the IBMYP :smile:

At a guess I would say 5 gcses with grades A-C, and possibly higher in any subjects you are wanting to specialise in. You will need experience, and some alevels or equivalent - you can always do a search on UCAS to see what individual unis require. I'd imagine that it is quite varied.