As a male teacher I don’t buy into the theory that boys are suffering due to the lack of male teachers. Great teachers, whether they be male or female is what our children really need. Gender only really comes into the equation when comparing teachers of equal value. I would argue that if there were more great teachers out there, there would be less of an urge to fix the gender imbalance in teaching:
THERE’S plenty to be said for life as a primary school teacher: a decent starting salary, quick career progression, enviable working conditions and more leave than you can shake the proverbial stick at.
Add to that the low barrier to entry, with teaching degrees having among the lowest Australian Tertiary Admission Rank scores, and you’d think there’d be no shortage of candidates lining up to educate our offspring. But for a variety of reasons, men are shunning the opportunity to become teachers, and that could have dire consequences for boys.
If you have primary school-aged children then you’re acutely aware of just how few male teachers are in the system. Latest figures show that eight out of 10 teachers in primary schools are female.
The shortage of male teachers has many worried about the impact on boys, particularly those lacking male role models within the family unit. Some boys can go through their entire primary school years without having a male teacher.
That’s a problem in a country with about 1 million one-parent families, the vast majority of whom are single-mother families.
Click on the link to read Sexism and Schools
Click on the link to read I Would be Happy to Have CCTV Cameras in My Classroom
Click on the link to read Should Classrooms Be Fitted With Surveillance Cameras?
