Here’s an experiment: Go to your local elementary school and ask the first male teacher you find what year the War of 1812 took place.

It’s a trick question, get it? Not the 1812 part, but the mere act of finding a male teacher at an elementary school is getting to be almost impossible. You might as well tack “purchasing a Nintendo Wii” on your list and turn it into the most frustrating day ever! 

While the male presence in elementary schools is practically nonexistent, the male presence in the secondary schools is also on the decline.  For the most part, men just aren’t choosing education as a career anymore. Let’s throw a few facts at you, provided by the National Education Association. Male teachers are at a forty year low. Only twenty-one percent of the nation’s three million teachers are male. In the elementary schools, that percentage has dropped from an all time high, in 1981, of eighteen percent to a low, today, of only nine percent. 

The question is why? 

For many men, it has a lot to do with gender stereotypes. Especially at the elementary school level, most people generally feel that women are more nurturing toward young children. In fact, men who do pursue a teaching career at the elementary level are often regarded with suspicion.  

Paul Sargent, who has been teaching since 1994 and is currently an educator at The Paley Center for Media, agrees, adding, “I have had to deal socially with the "stigma" that I must not be very ambitious because I've chosen to work with kids.”

The other reason is economic, with a splash of stereotype. Men just don’t feel that they will make enough money to provide for their families. As far as women have come in the job market, there is still a lot of pressure on men to be the main breadwinner in the household. 

“Men are typically encouraged to care more about money and prestige than public service and internal rewards,” said Sargent, although he is quick to point out that in administrative positions and higher education, men tend to be more dominant, possibly because they offer higher salaries and more cache. 

Okay, so attracting men to a career in education is getting more and more difficult, and even though many in education are kicking around plans to recruit males into the system, the question remains: Who needs them? 

As the scholastic performance of boys continues to drop, many point to the correlation of the drop in the male presence in schools as a factor. Increasingly, it is being ingrained in many of our nation’s young boys that high achievement in the classroom is a feminine thing. With a positive male role model for boys to look up to, it is felt that stigma will be revoked. 

There are also many who feel that a positive male influence will be beneficial to boys who may not have that in their lives, particularly in lower income communities where young boys often come from single mother households.  

While the male presence in schools could undoubtedly be good for boys, it is going to take a lot to attract men to this position. Breaking down gender stereotypes and raising teacher salaries are, however, two big bumps in the road that we need to get over. Sadly, at this time in our history, it would be best to think of our education system as a 1972 Chevy Caprice with a very bad suspension.

By Justin Gray