For the past semester, I’ve been student teaching at a middle school and I’m now currently at an elementary school as part of my music teacher certification process. It’s been a challenge learning all the ins and outs of being a teacher, but it has also come with great satisfaction. To get students excited about something that I’m greatly passionate about is an amazing thing to fulfill. Also, getting to know such amazing and unique kids in the small amount of time I’ve had at each school has been fantastic. There’s just one funny thing I’ve noticed, especially in elementary school – there sure are a lot more female teachers in comparison with male teachers.
It may not be the case for every district, but in my experience it seems that there is a serious lack in male teachers in primary and secondary levels of education. As you can see in this infographic, Canada, UK and the U.S. have less than 25% male teachers present in public schools. Now, I’m not quite convinced about the whole “pupils try harder for male teachers” thing – I really doubt that there’s legitimate research for that, but there is a lot to be said about the deficit of male teachers in public schools. Having equal role models of both sexes just sounds like a better system than the current one.