Have you ever noticed that most of your child’s elementary school teachers are female? What is the reason for that?
Well, TikTok elementary school teacher @mr.trayvon is breaking down the reasons why he believes the profession is lacking in male school teachers.
“Y’all know why not a lot of men are teaching in elementary schools?” he asked. “I’ll tell you why.”
Known as Mr. Trayvon, even on TikTok, he explains how he is one of the few male school teachers in elementary education.
The video is a description of the main justifications that he has found supporting this argument, being in the industry himself.
“So, I started working at this school with kindergartners,” he said. “Today, one kindergartner went on the monkey bars, and she wanted me to help her.”
This may sound normal at first. What could the problem be? She’s a small child who needs the help of her teacher. But, as Trayvon clarifies, the gender of that teacher matters, especially in this situation.
“She expected me to hold onto her as she went across the monkeybars,” Trayvon said. “I just wouldn’t do it.”
He explained how he had to just stand there, watching without helping her, until a female teacher was able to come over to assist instead.
It’s not just that he wouldn’t do it. In fact, he couldn’t do it. There was no way that he could comfortably help this little girl, who didn’t understand the social and political implications that came with her request, without worrying about his reputation, he explained.
“I believe I’ll get in trouble,” he said. “The thing is, the way society has ingrained in people’s heads that males working with kids that age are predators has got me in a place to where I don’t want to work with kids K through three.”
In this view, the normal job of teachers to assist their students in any way possible can’t be done properly in the highly politicized and intensely watched profession.
Of course, there are perfectly reasonable examples where criticism and investigation are justified. But not every teacher is going to abuse their power and violate the rules.
There are some who still want to do good– some who just want to take care of children and help them learn.
“I’m always afraid of a parent seeing me doing something with a student that’s completely innocent and misconstruing it, reporting it to my district office, and then I get a call from them saying, ‘come to the office, you’ve got an allegation,’” he explained. “I don’t want to deal with that.”
Fear has driven people away from the profession in recent years. It isn’t a fear of getting caught doing something wrong.
Rather a fear of people misunderstanding good actions and intentions and the repercussions to come from that.
“That’s why you don’t see a lot of male teachers in elementary schools– for that reason,” he argued.
“It’s sad that society thinks that way, and it’s keeping a lot of good people, such as myself, from working those lower grades.”
Read the Editorial and watch the TikTok Video