Where are all the men?

When it comes to educators, North Country elementary schools are suffering from a gender imbalance

Story by Christine Thompson

Recently published research hypothesizes that men shy away from elementary teacher roles because of the stereotype assumed of a typically female role. "Childhood education isn't perceived to be socially gender appropriate," Dr. David Hill, the Dean of Education, Health and Human Services at SUNY Plattsburgh, says.

Susan Mody, an elementary education professor at SUNY Plattsburgh, agrees. "Working with younger children is still considered by many a lower status profession," she says. "The younger the child, the greater the stigma, so you will find an even greater gender imbalance in the staff of pre-primary schools and day-care centers." Low starting salary and the fear of being stigmatized as a pedophile or a homosexual contribute to this dramatic lack of male role models for younger children, educators say.

Teachers serve the vital role of educating and socially enriching children for the future, but only a quarter of the three million teachers in America are male, according to research. Local districts, including Plattsburgh, Lake Placid, and Saranac Lake, report substantially low numbers of male elementary teachers.

Among approximately seventy teachers at Bailey Ave, Momot, and Oak Street Elementary school in Plattsburgh, only about six are male. According to Diane Thompson, a teacher at Bailey Ave Elementary, there are three male custodians, but no male teachers.  

"I find that the lack of male role models as teachers in elementary is a serious problem that most districts face. I have very few male teachers apply for openings when they exist," Carrie Zales, Principal at Oak Street Elementary school, says. Nor can the school find men to serve as mentors or in other positions within the elementary school.

In Hill's opinion, the men who do choose to work in elementary schools must embody a higher level of strength to face these issues. Before becoming the Dean of Education, Hill was an elementary teacher in Pennsylvania for three years. "I fell into it," Hill, who graduated with a degree in special education, says. He recalls it as an interesting experience and remembers when a male parent once said to him, "All men in elementary education should go through a psychiatric evaluation before being hired."

"The younger the child, the greater the stigma, so you will find an even greater gender imbalance in the staff of pre-primary schools and day-care centers."

This interesting problem presented by social perceptions continues to influence the students pursuing education degrees, as well as the children in these classrooms. Jayson Barnhart decided to pursue elementary education because of the flexibility of the subject matter (covering all subjects, instead of specializing in one), as well as the level of student energy in elementary schools. In 2007, he graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh and began searching for his first job after student teaching locally. "I knew I would be able to market myself being a male in a highly populated female part of education, which is key in the difficult world of finding employment." Barnhart currently is a first grade teacher at Northeastern Clinton County Elementary school, in Champlain, NY.

However, there are currently five times more people in childhood education looking for jobs than there are jobs available, Hill comments, and because of this he strongly emphasizes to college students to find something that makes them unique, male gender being one of them, specialization another.

Even the men who are marketing themselves as unique are still coming up short in the job market. The childhood education/special education program at SUNY Plattsburgh has 585 people enrolled. 502 of those students are female. 

"Kids need to see women and men in different roles. The more roles they see, the more choices they see themselves having," Hill says. "It also helps them better relate to adults."  This is a sentiment that is shared by Beth Shaughnessy, a resident of Plattsburgh and mother of one. Aside from a male physical education teacher, Beth doesn't remember her son, now a senior in high school, having any male role models until seventh grade. "I wish he would have had a male teacher," comments Shaughnessy, adding how the one male physical education teacher at St. John's only reinforced the gender stereotype.

"I think children do perceive the gender imbalance, but it tends to be 'normalized' and not questioned, with the result that many children tend to internalize the impression that this is a job mostly for women."

"Kids at young ages mimic what they see from their teachers, and that's how some of them start out learning, so a male teacher providing positive lessons about caring for all people, treating everyone fair and with respect, and displaying appropriate conduct to other staff members can and does have a positive impact on how the child develops whether it be a boy or a girl," Ryan Belair, a senior elementary education major at SUNY Plattsburgh remarks.

Mody adds that typically she has about two to three males in a class of twenty education majors. "Some say this effect [the gender imbalance] is greater for male children who lack role models; some say the effects are equally significant for girls," Mody states. "I think children do perceive the gender imbalance, but it tends to be 'normalized' and not questioned, with the result that many children tend to internalize the impression that this is a job mostly for women."

Across the nation, there have been many efforts to recruit men for education and raise awareness of the issue. According to a 2007 article from Newsweek, Indiana University offered a course on men in education; Pennsylvania State allotted $1 million for a recruitment program; the Borough of Manhattan Community College has a mentoring program for male teachers looking for jobs; there is a website called MenTeach.org that provides information and resources on the subject matter.

"This separation suggests to children that women are more interested in the education, raising, and in general the spending of time with both male/female children," adds Barnhart. Historically, there has been a tendency for male to hold administrative roles. "Too many children, both male and female do not have a positive male role model at home, for countless reasons, and not seeing many positive males at school where they spend most of their time only adds to this dire situation."

Did you have a male teacher in elementary school?