MenTeach E-News
March 2014
1) Arkansas ranks last for male teachers
2) Male teachers wary of hugging students
3) One man’s journey – A long term struggle to teach
4) Men in Early Childhood Education at the World Forum 2014 in Puerto Rico
5) Canadian teacher puts his best foot forward
6) Early years development: Why it is a job for the boys
7) St. Louis Teacher of the Year
8) TEACH Campaign Seeking Minority, Male Teachers
9) Comic: The issues of being a male preschool teacher
10) A man’s world in Australia
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1) Arkansas ranks last for male teachers
It’s becoming rarer to find men in the classroom, especially in Arkansas. The state is ranked bottom in country for the lowest percentage of male teachers.
According to the National Education Association, male teachers make up 16 percent of Arkansas’ teachers. That’s 12 points lower than the nation’s average.
“It’s always a goal of mine to inspire more than the year before,” says Bryant High School business teacher Marc Nixon.
Education has been Nixon’s passion for the last four years, despite being a minority in the industry.
“I could go an entire day without seeing a male teacher,” says Nixon.
Nixon actually graduated with a finance degree and was a banker, a much higher-paying career than teaching, but his heart just wasn’t in it. Read the article: /node/2386
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2) Male teachers wary of hugging students
Kindergarten teacher Paul Ferreter knows he is putting his credential on the line each time he opens his arms to hug one of his students.
While more and more teachers, especially male educators, are putting up barriers to protect themselves from false allegations, Ferreter said he can’t bring himself to forgo hugs. But his hugs have been modified. He calls them “sideways hugs.”
“Our teachers union has told us we shouldn’t pat the kids on the shoulder, there should be no touching,” said Ferreter, who teaches at Golden Empire Elementary School in Rosemont, Calif. “I’m taking that risk because I think it’s important.”
In the last decade, the number of male teachers has held steady in California making up 27 percent of the teacher workforce in kindergarten through 12th grade. Read the article: /node/2387
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3) One man’s journey – A long term struggle to teach
I went into the teaching credential program with the understanding that elementary schools “…need and want male teachers.” I had heard this from many, many sources (including my wife, the president of the Board of Directors of the CITY, STATE Unified School District). I have now come to the understanding that while this may indeed be true (as you point out below other teachers – women, mainly – and parents do want to have more male teachers in elementary school), those who desire more male teachers are not, sadly, the ones who do the hiring. Principals, not parents and teachers, are responsible for hiring. Most principals are female and most prefer, in my experience, to make the easy and safe choice – a young, white female just out of college with little or no previous work experience of any kind. Read the his story: /node/2388
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4) Men in Early Childhood Education at the World Forum 2014 in Puerto Rico
Join over 800 early childhood professionals from more than 80 nations in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a life-changing experience! At the 2014 World Forum you will be exposed to widely diverse perspectives and approaches to the care and education of young children. You will learn about the lives of children, families, and early childhood providers from all ethnic, cultural, political, and religious backgrounds. You will make friends for life across the globe. You will learn, work, converse, sing, dance, laugh, and cry. You will change others and you will change! Go to site to register: /node/2367
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5) Canadian teacher puts his best foot forward
While being a male elementary school teacher in today’s world isn’t exactly blazing any new trails, they’re still a rare commodity in what is still a predominantly female-dominated occupation.
Chris Vasquez, however, isn’t all that interested in being seen as either a token or a novelty. When he steps into his noisy, raucous Grade One classroom at Whitecourt’s Pat Hardy Primary School, his students only know him as one thing: “Mr. Vasquez”
His classroom at Pat Hardy is the 27-year-old’s first full-time teaching job. A recent University of Alberta graduate, Vasquez credits his grandmother, who herself is a schoolteacher, with encouraging him to make education his career.
“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do in University,” he said. “I tried it out and fell in love with it!” Read the article: /node/2389
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6) Early years development: Why it is a job for the boys
One of the first clear calls from the coalition government for the early years sector was to encourage greater gender equality in the workforce. But with the number of men in the sector staying static at just 2%, it doesn’t seem the message is getting through.
The benefits to reversing this trend are clear. Some young children lack a positive male role model and a male early years worker could provide this. Read the article: /node/2392
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7) St. Louis Teacher of the Year
Leo A. Ganahl, a third-grade teacher at Bermuda Elementary School, is Ferguson-Florissant School District’s 2011 Teacher of the Year. Ganahl is the district’s first male elementary teacher to receive the award.
He is a product of Ferguson-Florissant, having attended Griffith Elementary School and graduated from McCluer High School, and lives in the district.
Ganahl earned a bachelor’s degree and teaching certificate from the University of Missouri at St. Louis and a master’s degree in education from Lindenwood University. Read the article: /node/2394
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8) TEACH Campaign Seeking Minority, Male Teachers
The U.S. Department of Education says it wants to recruit more diverse and qualified educators and created a new initiative to help the process.
It’s called the TEACH Campaign, and has a goal of encouraging more minorities–especially males–to go after careers in the classroom.
The department says less than two percent of educators are African-American males and that has led some in the black community to launch “5 by 2015”. It’s a movement to bring 80,000 black males to the classroom in the next five years, bumping that two percent to five.
William Boyles teaches science at C.A. Johnson High School in Richland County. He says he never expected to end up at the front of a classroom, despite coming from a family of educators. He says he fell into the profession by accident when his sister told him about a position.
Go to website: /node/2395
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9) Comic: The issues of being a male preschool teacher
This is just one of the many things I dealt with as a male preschool teacher. I’m thinking about starting a webcomic series about my time as a teacher. You can see the comic and read the hundreds of comments about it: /node/2398
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10) A man’s world in Australia
Climbing the corporate ladder can be tough, especially if you’re a woman, but there are an increasing number of men finding it hard to break into traditionally female-dominated professions.
There’s vigorous debate about whether there should be quotas to boost their numbers on boards and, as advocates continue to seek a fair go for females, what happens to men in jobs dominated by women? Read the article: /node/2400
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