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It’s no shock to any reader – teacher or parent – to learn that boys are not just falling behind, they’re sinking. In the middle school where I teach, of our nearly 1,100 students, roughly 80% of the special education students are male. More than 2/3 of the students failing classes are male. More than 75% of the discipline problems, again, originate with our young men. Conversely, less than 40% of our gifted students and students in enriched courses are male. Less than 45% of our students enrolling in college are male. I’m certain other schools would find similar (if not larger amounts) of disparity.

A major part to this solution involves placing more male teachers in the classroom. Again, it’s unsurprising that our profession is mostly a female-dominated one. But here’s the real shocker – according to a 2011 National Center for Education study, only 16% of teachers nationwide were male. These figures are down from 18% in 2005, 26% in 1996, and 31% in 1986. In comparison, these statistics are higher in the elementary level. Combined with the increasing amounts of divorce (more than 50% of marriages now involve child support) and single-parent, mother-only households, the decline of male teachers could be elevated to a level of crisis – maybe the most unspoken one in all of education.

While I’ll be the first to admit that the solution is more complex than simply hiring more male teachers, it is a very important start for young boys in broken households. As a young child in a split family, I very rarely saw my father. In fact, there is a period of 6 years where I saw him not once. During that time there were three incredibly influential male teachers that provided much needed mentorship during that time. The first helped me get interested in baseball and writing in 1st grade. The other two, my 11th grade language arts teacher and my 10th–12th grade math teacher, actually came to my wrestling matches, took me on college visits, and, in short, provided the surrogate fathering that had remained absent from my life. Up to that point, I could count the amount of male teachers I had in class on less than one hand.

Their “paying it forward” had dividends, instilling in me a sense of drive and determination that had only been reserved to working on the assembly line at the local fire truck factory. Today, when I confront students who look and sound a lot like I did back in middle and high school – an overwhelming of which are (but not exclusively) male, I use the same diligence my those three teachers used when it came to inspiring me.

However, the male teacher is a dying breed. After reading several articles on the matter, I’ve learned many have come to the conclusion that this dilemma stems from one’s that, again, you should be obvious-decreasing lack of public respect for the position, societal factors, increased (and even unfair) demands, and, of course, money.

As a young teacher now engaged and looking at the future, it’s difficult envisioning myself remaining in the profession for the long-run. One of the major goals that my fiancée and I have with our fledgling family is to allow her to stay home and raise our future children. As a teacher with five preps (different classes and grade levels for the non-lingoed teacher), my second time frozen in salary, increasing class sizes, and lack of room to grow both professionally and personally, and, of course, making less than most of my peers with similar education and experience, the stagnation of our position is adding up – regardless of my gender.

When we return from our winter break in the New Year, I have a list of 7 students I need to sit down with and share a true heart-to-heart conversation. For them, the remaining parts to their 7th or 8th grade year will have some major impacts on the rest of their time in school and, evidently, in setting them up for success (or failure) in the remainder of their school career and the time following. My goal is more than to keep them off the assembly line, but to inspire them to be something more than who they think they are. All 7 of the students, by the way, are boys; I’m the only male teacher that 5 of them has on a regular basis.

I doubt you’re very surprised by these figures as well.

Follow Jake Miller on Twitter @MrJakeMiller

Mr. Jake Miller is the 2016 National History Day Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, a 2017 NEA Global...

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6 Comments

  1. Jake,
    I saw the same things that you mention in your article, so, 8 years ago I went back to school to get a master’s degree in education, passed the math and basic teacher tests (in California) and now have been teaching for 7 years (high school, math to low performers). Although I am in a very good paying district I am thinking of leaving to provide for my kids who are now going to college. I thought there would be more support for those who left industry and went into teaching. I am 53 now and find very little support for teachers and their families in this country.
    Jim

  2. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about more male teachers being needed. When I ask friends why they do not consider teaching as a profession instead of, say accounting or government work, I always hear the same thing – the lack of money and the lack of respect for teachers, especially as many males are still heads of households and the main breadwinner. As a female, single parent, I found it extremely difficult to make ends meet on just my teacher's salary, and often found myself hunting for sitters for my child as I worked a second, and sometimes third job. I have seen the most difficult students respond to one of the two male teachers in my school building; I also know that every year, because my co-teacher is a male, we will be getting the children with the most behavior challenges because of the fact he is a male.

  3. I am a middle school teacher and have been teaching for 15 years. In the first school I worked at we were definitely a female dominated staff, but the school I work at now has a 2:1 ratio of males to females. This is because of coaching. I agree with the writer that the biggest dilemma for our youth is the lack of male role models. But there is also the huge shift in respect for education as well.

    1. Thank you all for your thought-provoking and personal comments. They are much appreciated.

  4. Hi Jake,
    I have seen the same things in my three years as a teacher. I am often asked to intervene with the more difficult students and frankly get the best responses from of those students that no other teacher is even willing to help anymore. Part of this is due to my being a Special Ed. Teacher, but most of it is due to my background as a Hispanic male with military experience. I have wondered and still do, if there are any organizations out there that focus on getting more males in the classrom. I would like to hear your thoughts on the subject.

    – Rob

  5. I would like to think more male teachers and more male role models will do the trick. The problem though, goes much deep and involves a host of mistreatments from infancy. We need to see how the more aggressive treatment and much less kind, stable verbal interaction by parents, teachers, many others while preparing them to be tough, is working “opposite of the information age. We need to see how average stress is very poorly defined and doesn’t show how the much aggressive, less supportive creates higher maintained layers of average stress hurting boys in many ways. The much less support and care both for fear of coddling and the social/emotional distance/fear of adults created by adults around them create much lower social vocabulary and greatly reduces communication skills over time.
    It creates lags in social vocabulary and other communication we as girls are given on a continuous basis. The higher average stress creates more activity for stress relief not genetics. The higher average stress creates higher muscle tension which hurts handwriting more pressure on pencil and tighter grip hurting handwriting motivation to write early fatigue. The total effect including less care and support creates much more failure and a feeling of hopelessness especially with our false genetic models firmly in place. Also to make it even tougher for boys is the granting of love and honor feelings of self-worth only on some condition of achievement status or image. This was designed to keep Male esteem and feelings of self-worth low to keep them striving and even be willing to give their lives in time of war for small measures of love and honor from society. Males not achieving in school or other areas are given more ridicule and discipline to make them try harder. Support is not given boys for fear of coddling. Many boys as you would expect thus falling behind in school then turn their attention to sports and video games to gleam small measures of love and honor not received in the classroom. The belief boys should be strong and the false belief in genetics creates a blatant mental denial of the differential treatment which is creating the lower academics lower esteem and other problems many boys are facing today. So strong is the belief boys should be strong there is an almost emotional cannibalism allowed upon boys and men who appear weak in some way by society: parents teachers others even from many girls and women especially in the media. Note this is not about showing feelings or openness from boys and men it is about support care and respect for boys even when appearing weak in some way. Remember aggressive treatment is increased for any sign of weakness and the much wariness boys feel for parent and teachers who feel it necessary and more freely allowed to use more aggressiveness for any sign of weakness or vulnerability. This is condoned by many in society today. This problem is affecting all male children, later adults, but the lower the socioeconomic environment and more time in those environments, the much more amplified and set in place the more harsh and less supportive treatment is given those male children by parents, teachers, peers, others.
    As girls, we are given much more mental, emotional, social, physical support and care by parents, teachers, and peers. We enjoy a kind of reverse catharsis of care while the boys receive the opposite, more hurtful treatment to make them strong. This is now killing off boys in the information age while providing girls with all of the good things. As girls we are treated much better and so enjoy more hope and care from society. Since we as girls are given by differential treatment much more continual positive – mental social/emotional support verbal interaction and care from an early age onward this creates quite the opposite outcome for girls when compared with the boys. We enjoy much more care and support and care from society from infancy through adulthood and receive love and honor simply for being girls. This creates all of the good things. We enjoy lower average stress for more ease of learning. We enjoy much more freedom of expression from much protection that makes us look more unstable at times. Of course we can also use that same freedom of expression to give verbal silent abuse and hollow kindness/patronization to our Male peers with impunity knowing we are protected. We enjoy much lower muscle tension for more ease and ability in handwriting and motivation to write. We enjoy much more positive trust/communication from parents teachers peers and more support for perceived weaknesses. We are reaping a bonanza in the information age. The lower the socioeconomic bracket the more amplified the differential treatment from infancy and more differentiated over time through adulthood. Now with girls and women taking over many areas of society we are enjoying more lavishing of love and honor from society while the boys and men are now failing more so and are now given even more ridicule and abuse by society. Mind you this is now coming from many girls and women using our still protected freedoms of expression and more so with false feelings of superiority.

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