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You guys are blowing the whole sexual harassment thing out of the water. I taught 4th grade for a year. I didn't feel that anyone was obsessively watching for any sexual misconduct, and obviously my behavior did not warrant any scrutiny anyway.
If the pay was better (it starts sub-40k and moves up very slowly for a relatively hard job) and the bureaucratic b.s. not so intense, I think more men might do it. I thought it was great. Being a male teacher in elementary makes you the automatic "authority" figure. In elementary, most of the kids still respect authority and they especially respect male authority. For me it was the combination of bureaucratic b.s. and low pay that convinced me to move on. I could have dealt with one or the other but not both. I couldn't teach the way I wanted.... it was always drill, drill, drill the test... and for the pay it's not worth putting up with that.
Upsides from a work standpoint... you start early but end early... the kids were gone at 2:45 and I'd be done by 4 unless there were some bs meetings or service to attend to. Also the kids were rewarding. This was a "borderline" school, mostly Hispanic & black, but I thought the kids tried hard & most were little sweeties... made me feel good about the world. 4th grade was a good age because they're old enough to have some attention span but young enough to still be susceptible to adult authority, punishments like standing in the corner still motivate them. They're not rebellious for its own sake & hormonal wrecks yet like the middle school pre-teens.
There are also a lot of dating opportunities with newly graduated female teachers; there were like 12-15 of them and 3 single guys that worked in the place.
As for sexual misconduct I'd be much more worried about high school.
For some reason, school districts in urban areas with higher minority populations seem to be more willing to hire male teachers. I wonder if such districts are also less likely to falsely accuse them of sexually harassing students or female colleagues.
"To be eligible for an alternative preparation program, candidates must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, which should be in the subject area that the candidate intends to teach."
I have never experienced any sort of discrimination. My impression is that male teachers are desired in the elementary schools. Every school I did a pre-service experience at offered me a job.
I've had mentors tell me that I would never want for a job.
Female teachers do fall into two categories though. They either love us, or hate us. We aren't the same and we teach differently. We reach kids differently. Just because we don't decorate or host holiday parties doesn't mean we aren't effective.
In ten years of classroom expereince (Pre-k, 3rd, 4th (3 times), 5th (two times), MS/HS (2 years), SPED (1 year sped only, 6 total inclusion) I have only once encountered someone who questioned my ability. Thankfully the data was in my favor (shut them up pretty quick).
My wife teaches upper elementary (6th grade). A parent came through open house today and asked who her daughter would have for math. It's not yet set, but the parent stated that she did not want her daughter to have Mr. ---. When my wife questioned why, the mother said she just wasn't comfortable having a male teach her daughter in elementary school. When my wife said her husband taught a lower grade at another elementary the mother acted surprised and said, "Well...doesn't he have a lot of parents who are concerned about having him as a teacher?".
My wife teaches upper elementary (6th grade). A parent came through open house today and asked who her daughter would have for math. It's not yet set, but the parent stated that she did not want her daughter to have Mr. ---. When my wife questioned why, the mother said she just wasn't comfortable having a male teach her daughter in elementary school. When my wife said her husband taught a lower grade at another elementary the mother acted surprised and said, "Well...doesn't he have a lot of parents who are concerned about having him as a teacher?".
I say again - this really, really, really surprises me.
If the teacher is a good teacher he's a good teacher! And neither gender is any more or less "trustworthy," so to speak, than the other...at least IMO.
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