MenTeach E-News
November 2014
1) Kindergarten teacher part of a rare breed
2) MenTeach at the National Conference in Dallas, TX
3) Jerry Parr and Jason Williams National Award Winners
4) India: Male teachers in city schools feel stigmatised
5) Scholarship designed for African-American men in Florida
6) Queensland (Australia) College of Teachers propose investigation into decline in number of males choosing teaching
7) How the recession moved us closer to gender balance
8) M.E.N. Organization meeting last night was a success in Wisconsin
9) MenTeach New England Meeting in January 2015
10) When was the last time you encountered a male teacher? Apparently, not soon enough
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1) Kindergarten teacher part of a rare breed
As a male kindergarten teacher, new Brook Forest School teacher David Mangless is a rare breed — only 2.3 percent of the country’s preschool and kindergarten teachers in 2013 were men, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Q. Did you know that you wanted to teach kindergarten when you decided that you were interested in becoming a teacher?
A. Pretty much. When I was in high school, they had a learning lab with a real preschool. I thought it would be fun, so I signed up for a class where we worked with the kids there, and I liked it so much that I continued to work in the learning lab. Read the interview: /node/2515
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2) MenTeach at the National Conference in Dallas, TX
Join us at the largest early education conference in the world in Dallas, TX. There are numerous sessions about men teaching including an awards ceremony to honor men and women supporting the work of recruiting and retaining men teaching. See the schedule:
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3) Jason Williams and Jerry Parr National Award Winners
Leader of Men and Children Award winner
Jason Williams – PK teacher at Greenville Ave Child Development Center, where Deborah Henderson is Director. He has a CDA, TEEM trained, and is a T.E.A.C.H. Scholar. He started at 19 as an assistant; has been in child care for 10 years. Parents rave about Mr. Jason. One parent currently has two of his triplets in Mr. Jason’s class.
Champion for Men and Children Award
Jerry Parr – Member-at-Large Jerry Parr continues to work with fellow co-founders of MenTeach New England, a coalition of male and female teachers and administrators who support men in early childhood education in the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. See the photos and read the about the winners: /node/2523
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4) India: Male teachers in city schools feel stigmatized
One of the guidelines issued to schools by the Department of Public Instruction, following an increase in cases of sexual assaults, was mandatory police verification of all male staff in schools.
Steps include ascertaining the antecedents of the teacher, by conducting background checks with their neighbours. These measures initiated by the Police has put the staff in an embarrassing situation, allege teacher associations. The male teachers were being stigmatised, they contend.
Recently, a PET teacher of a school under Saraswathipuram police station limits, in the city, was summoned for verification. “Following his return from the police station, other staffers in the school looked at him as if he was a suspect in sexual assault cases. This incident lead him to lodge a complaint with us,” said P S Rajashekarmurthy, president of Karnataka State Unaided School-College, Teaching and Non-Teaching Staff Association. Read the article: /node/2520
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5) Scholarship designed for African-American men in Florida
Edward Waters College is offering a scholarship program called, Call Me Mister. The college needs more applicants. It is available for African-American men who want to become teachers. Watch the interview: /node/2525
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6) Queensland (Australia) College of Teachers propose investigation into decline in number of males choosing teaching
The number of male teachers in Queensland schools has fallen to “alarming” levels, sparking a probe into the decline.
Poor pay rates and perception of teaching careers has been blamed for the slide, with registered male teachers making up barely 16 per cent of educators in state primary school this year.
The Queensland College of Teachers has proposed an investigation into the decline.
The percentage of male teachers in secondary state schools has also dropped, from 41.07 per cent to 35.13 per cent over the past decade, while in non-state high schools, a similar drop of 5.79 per cent was experienced over 10 years. QCT acting director Drew Braban said the trend was “alarming”. Read the full story: /node/2527
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7) How the recession moved us closer to gender balance
In 2012, the New York Times reported an increase in men entering careers such as nursing and teaching; citing money, quality of life and a gradual erosion of gender stereotypes as reasons behind the trend. Childcare worker, Mick Kenny, agrees that there has been a change since he began his career in 1996.
“I worked in childcare for about eight years before I came across another man. Things are different these days, especially after the recession, which I really think shook up gender stereotypes. People are more open to the idea now.”
Kenny says that he still remembers what is was like when he first started.
“Out of a class of around 18 of us in college and it was just me and one other guy,” he says. “At my first job, some of the parents’ jaws physically dropped when they saw me.”
Kenny now runs two community childcare centres in Kilkenny and is head of Men in Childcare Ireland, a support network for men looking to pursue a career in the field. Read the article: /node/2529
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8) M.E.N. Organization meeting last night was a success in Wisconsin
I just wanted to follow up with this good news about our M.E.N. Organization on campus. Read the email below…I sent this to our teaching partners in the field this morning. I am SOOOOO excited.
Hope you are doing well and life is good to you.
Good morning to you!
I am most happy to report that our ‘first official’ M.E.N. Organization meeting last night was a success. We had 12/14 male ECE students attending which allowed us to vote for officers and decide on dues and possible activities. They decided that they would like to create t-shirts, bring in guest speakers and engage in a community service project (if any of you have ideas, please let us know.) Read the report: /node/2530
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9) MenTeach New England Meeting in January 2015
MenTeach-NE planning session and conversation
Saturday, January 17, 2015, 10-2ish
@ Jerry Parr’s house in Londonderry, NH near MA border.
Camaraderie, brotherhood and food! See the posting:
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10) When was the last time you encountered a male teacher? Apparently, not soon enough
Boys will rarely if ever encounter a male teacher until they reach high school, a fact lamented by many both because teacher’s serve as important role models and because the lack of gender diversity tends to turn the profession into a prestige ghetto.
“We have so very, very, very, very few men,” Sherry Cleary, executive director of the Early Childhood Professional Development Institute at the City University of New York told NPR recently. “The sad part of it is that young children love to be around men. They love guys, they love their strength. They love that they’re fun and they feel safe and trust them.”
Ninety-eight percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers are women, and 82 percent of elementary and middle school teachers female, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
Read the article: /node/2505
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