Apr 3, 2007
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Ernst Lamothe Jr. of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports that the number of male teachers nationwide has hit a 40-year low and that the number of male teachers in New York State elementary schools has halved in about 25 years:
Men make up less than 10 percent of elementary school teachers nationwide, and the total number of male teachers now stands at a 40-year low, according to the National Education Association.
The percentage of male elementary teachers in New York state has declined since its peak of 19 percent in 1980 to about 9 percent today.
The article is effusive with the human interest element - which really isn’t interesting at all - but it’s worth reading for the nuggets about the state of teaching in New York.
NEA President Reg Weaver says that there’s a perception that men go into education to “teach the subject,” while women enter to rear and nurture children. I don’t know who perceives the situation that way, but it would be interesting to know. He goes on to say that:
“Others see teaching as women’s work that’s not lucrative enough for them to provide for their families, which is very important to men,” added Weaver. But “having male teachers is essential, because for some kids, these are the only men they have in their lives.”
Weaver’s mind is stuck in the campy Sociology 101 class he took a generation ago, but we know that improved pay will bring higher-quality, talented people into the profession regardless of gender. Strong, intelligent people are a necessity in education for a host of reasons, one of which is influencing students who may not have two strong parents at home. Then it gets saucy:
Also, some people are suspicious of men who want to teach younger kids.
“When parents see newspaper articles detailing male inappropriate behavior with students in middle and high schools, some may feel wary about having their small children taught by males,” said Jody Siegle, executive director of the Monroe County School Boards Association.
This puzzles me. I won’t even address the absurdity of thinking any male teacher is, deep down, an insatiable pedophile for wanting to work with young students. Recent stings - like this one a few days ago - along with plenty of statistics show us that offenders come from all walks of life, not just teaching.
Gender politics, sex offenders, teacher pay, gender stereotyping, professional stereotyping, plenty of human interest - and then finally someone says it:
“Given all the issues, the gender of elementary school teachers just doesn’t come up,” Siegle said.
As a former elementary school teacher, Greene, now principal at Jefferson Avenue Elementary in the Fairport district, enjoys seeing the occasional male applicant, yet he knows that can’t be the No. 1 hiring factor.
“We’re thankful whenever we find quality males, but we can’t just say because you are male, we’re going to hire you. We still have to find the best person for the job,” said Greene. Jefferson has 11 men among its 65 teachers.
At least we know one administrator in New York State still focuses on the real issue: teacher quality. The issue of teacher quality should triumph every time.
Lamothe would’ve impressed me had he asked the following questions:
- How do these statistics relate to those for undergraduate and graduate students in education? Are they reflective of the same trends the colleges are seeing?
- Are colleges doing anything to address these trends?
- Are there different attrition rates for male and female teachers in NYS schools? Do those rates differ from national averages?
- Are there any other real explanations for these trends beyond tired stereotypes? I assume the NEA has thought a bit about it, but I could be wrong.
- Is there any discernible difference in the effectiveness of male and female teachers?
For what it’s worth, the best teacher I had in K-5 was male. It was because he was a highly-intelligent, knowledgeable teacher with the appropriate amount of levity and compassion for the fifth-grade level.
UPDATE at 4/3/07, 3.34pm:
Mr. Lamothe responds in the comments of his article:
My name is Ernst Lamothe Jr. and I am the reporter who wrote the story about the lack of male teachers. I would like to address some of the questions that people have asked. The reason why education experts believe gender diversity is important is because children learn in various ways and having only one type of teacher can’t always feed that need. Everyone has had multiple bosses in their lives that they worked with. Some bosses you remember relating to well and others you just couldn’t connect with. Imagine if you only had bosses that you could not relate with. Also it’s common knowledge that men and women think differently about many things and approach situations from varying angles. Experts are not saying that women haven’t done a superb job teaching elementary school. But whenever you have only one group performing a task, you miss out on other viewpoints. Men entering women-dominating fields and vice versa can enhance professions.
Ernst Lamothe Jr.
Democrat and Chronicle
Again we see elementary learning categorized as non-scientific and nearly-arbitrary process. Instead of focusing on methods proven effective for seminal subjects like reading, we are led to believe that our little snowflakes are all very different and unique in their own way - and that we must have a combination of every minority and both genders if we are going to reach them. I’ll pass up “common knowledge” for verifiable data any day.
Apr 2, 2007
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Well, not quite. But Alan Johnson, the United Kingdom’s Education secretary, is overseeing today the implementation of The Education and Inspections Act 2006, a law that allows teachers to use “reasonable force” to take hold of unruly classrooms:
The Education and Inspections Act 2006, which came into force on April 1st, explicitly grants teachers the right to use “reasonable force” to break up fights or remove disruptive pupils from the classroom.
Powers extend outside of school hours, meaning teachers can restrain pupils seen misbehaving on public transport or on the way to school.
And there’s the much-needed addition to a school’s responsibility. Not only can teachers exert proper authority over pupils during the school day, but they can also carry their authority into the real world. You know, that place the students are going to end up when they’re done with school.
Implementation of this Act will prove problematic and many teachers will undoubtedly whine about increased responsibilities. Even so, it’s a step in the right direction - it broadens accountability for students and provides for extra-curricular education in a highly-relevant setting. The answer to the question, “When am I gonna have to know this?” is simply, “For starters, on your way to school.”
An amendment to the Violent Crime Reduction Act also gives teachers the right to search pupils for weapons.
It’s about time.
Teaching unions also welcomed the new powers, adding they would help combat cyber bullying.
Let’s hope the cooperating unions have the will to make use of these statutes.
The state of British education is shaky, though. While this story shows that some Britons want to take back their schools, I read yesterday [hat tip: littlegreenfootballs] that British schools are increasingly dropping the Crusades and the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending the sensibilities of Muslims. The Daily Mail reports that:
Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed. It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.
Maybe now teachers can wrestle the kids into their seats long enough to tell them about some of the most salient events in human history.
UPDATE (for the Americans) at 4/2/07, 12.43pm:
In the politics.co.uk article, Johnson references the “Am I bovvered?” culture. This phrase comes from the wildly popular BBC comedy called “The Catherine Tate Show,” in which a school-aged girl uses this phrase to show that she just doesn’t care (hint: “bovvered” is a butchered version of “bothered”). “Am I bovvered?” has become a catchphrase that sums up the indifferent attitudes of British youth.
UPDATE #2 at 4/2/07, 1:31pm:
Joanne Jacobs nails the pith regarding the exclusion of Holocaust education: “Think about what that means.”
Mar 29, 2007
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Many thanks to The Ellsworths, authors of the column “In These Otsego Hills” that appears weekly in The Cooperstown Crier, for their kind words regarding this site. In today’s column they wrote:
We have also discovered that at least one Cooperstonian has his own website, matthewktabor.com (education for the aughts). Matthew, who graduated from CCS in 2000, has taken on the job of talking about education, including thoughts on CCS, by pulling together education articles from around the country. According to the website “Matthew’s background includes work in higher education, executive recruiting, consulting and government. He educates privately and writes out of Cooperstown, New York.” Anyone who is interested can check Matthew’s website out at: www.matthewktabor.com. We also hasten to point out that we imagine there are other Cooperstonians with websites which might be of interest to the community. If anyone is aware of any, please let us know.
I’d like to echo that - if there are any Cooperstonians who maintain websites, send me an e-mail at [email protected] [e-mail link will open in a new window] and let me know as well. Not only would I like to link to you, but I’d like to point out interesting content for readers in Upstate New York and beyond.
If you’re a first-time visitor looking for discussion of education issues in, around or relevant to Otsego County, you might want to get started with these:
You can subscribe to regular updates via e-mail by putting your e-mail address in the “Subscribe to Newsletter” box in the top left of the main page and clicking submit. Your e-mail won’t be shared, given, sold, or otherwise used inappropriately by this site or any third-parties. You’ll just get e-mail updates every few weeks about the most interesting content on this site.
The Ellsworths also pointed to an excellent video of Cooperstown/Lake Otsego from the 1920s. Youtube user “lipwak”/”John L” wrote the following about the 7+ minute video:
From my grandparents’ home movies. Cooperstown and Lake Otsego views, party at the Cooperstown Country Club w/ tennis, badminton and croquet, old cars, a biplane seaplane takes off and lands, tour of lake from speedboat with Kingfisher Tower.
You can view it by clicking here [video links open a new window]. He also uploaded this 46-second clip of toy steamboats which he guesses are also filmed on the Lake. This is great stuff.
Again, a warm welcome to all the new readers from the Cooperstown area - I hope you’ll check back often. And, as always, feel free to e-mail any comments, submissions, suggestions, etc. to [email protected] [e-mail link opens in a new window].
Mar 29, 2007
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I examined last Tuesday the Cooperstown Central School District’s decision to implement surveillance cameras to monitor school grounds. At that week’s meeting, the Board of Education adopted the policy [click here and scroll down to download/view the policy].
A quick review of the issue:
- The Crier’s article quotes Principal Gary Kuch and the elected Board as saying cameras are in place to deter vandalism. No report of the cost or frequency of vandalism was presented.
- “It’s not the ‘Big Brother is watching you’ thing, it’s really about watching other people who come into the school,†said high school principal Gary Kuch. The Board then explained that cameras will also include blanket indoor coverage of public areas within the building. This is at direct odds with the reasons given for needing the cameras. As I wrote in my last post on the issue, “If students aren’t the target, there’s no reason CCTV should be used indoors during the day. Turn it on from 3pm - 7am, turn it on outside, turn it on during the summers and vacation periods.”
- “He [Kuch] said the footage would only be held for a few days before being deleted.” That simply isn’t enough time for the footage to be an asset. There is no comprehensive plan for the storage and use of the footage.
- There is no behavioral data to support the need for a CCTV system inside the school buildings.
- There is still no budget for the project that includes the following: Cameras and installation, storage/media [and necessary hardware], planned and unplanned maintenance, signage and public notification costs, training sessions for users, cost of staff time to maintain storage of footage, etc.
Even so, the measure was passed.
The approved policy explains that the District-wide Safety Committee will meet and make recommendations to the Superintendent regarding the details of the policy. Superintendent McPhail will then, at her sole discretion, make recommendations to the Board. These parties will make the following considerations:
- Demonstrated need at specific locations;
- Appropriateness and effectiveness of the proposal;
- The use of traditional, “less-intrusive means” of achieving a safe school;
- Right to privacy for students and staff;
- A budget of all necessary expenses.
There is no data to show the necessity of cameras at any location; the proposal and admissions by administration and the Board outline inappropriate, ineffective use; the school continues to avoid effective disciplinary measures [including proper oversight of guests] that would render the camera issue moot; they have no cost [or cost-benefit] estimates. They do, however, have a handle on the privacy issues, but that’s because hundreds of other schools have already done the legwork.
They’ve got a lot of work to do.
Mar 28, 2007
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The Carnival of Education is a weekly roundup of salient blog posts and articles from the the education blogosphere hosted by The Education Wonks.
Some highlights from this week’s midway:
- Edspresso follows up Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s resistance to a $200 million gift to fund charter schools.
- Going to the Mat examines measuring teacher effectiveness using the same Sabermetric analysis employed by Moneyball-driven baseball teams.
- Joanne Jacobs reveals that interdisciplinary projects are often heavy on the art and light on academics.
- Cold Spring Shops reinforces the obvious: if teachers want more pay, they’re going to have to do better.
- Dr. Madeline Daniels explains the self-fulfilling prophecy of how encouraging legitimate self-esteem brings real achievement.
And, of course, my entry about the Advanced Placement philosophy.
A note from the Wonks:
Next Week’s Carnival midway will be hosted by Matthew Paulson over at Getting Green. Contributors are invited to send submissions to: ggreenblog [at] hotmail [dot] com , or use this handy submission form. Entries should be received no later than Tuesday, April 3, 2007. Please include the title of your post and its URL, if possible. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the midway should open next Wednesday morning.
Many thanks and a hearty welcome to the first-time readers who are visiting Education for the Aughts by way of the Carnival.
