Is There A Shortage Of Male Teachers?

Students in Louis Lessor’s 3rd-grade SAGE classroom at Westside School in Sun Prairie sit in a circle to discuss books they have recently read.

By Terry Lawler

“You’re my first boy teacher.”

Louis Lessor, a 3rd-grade instructor at Westside Elementary in Sun Prairie, often hears these words from his students on the first day of school. Lessor, a recipient of the I Can Learn-NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence in 2005, believes there is a critical shortage of male teachers in the profession as a whole, especially in the primary grades.

“I have spent the past 16 years teaching with wonderfully talented individuals – male and female. I’ve also spent the past 16 years troubled by too few male elementary teachers for our nation’s youth.” In Lessor’s own district, female instructors outnumber male instructors by a three-to-one margin. However, at the elementary level, men make up only 13% of the staff.

John Peschl

Danette Espindola

“Sun Prairie tries to hire the best candidates, and I agree wholeheartedly with this philosophy. However, I would like to see the candidate pool be more gender-friendly,” he said.

Danette Espindola, a kindergarten and 1st-grade teacher at Westside agrees. “Many of our young, impressionable students have no male role model at home, she said. “Children interact differently with adult men and women. Sometimes they don’t need another female authority figure; they have those already at home.”

Lessor believes there are three causes for the lack of male teachers: prestige, pay, and prejudice.

Prestige and Pay
Society continues to regard teachers as “second-class” professionals, Lessor said. “I would like to see our calling be recognized and paid as the noble profession it is.”

Many male teachers have experienced the gulf between themselves and professionals in the private sector. Lessor’s nephew graduated a few years ago with a degree in engineering. “He left college making a salary of $50,000. After 16 years of teaching, I still don’t make that.”

While salary may deter many qualified males from entering the profession as a whole, Jim Larson, a kindergarten teacher in Stoughton, believes that salary isn’t the biggest block to specifically acquiring more male elementary teachers. “Pay is the same for all (teaching) levels,” said Larson, a recipient of Teacher of the Year in his district.

Prejudice
Larson believes that societal prejudice keeps men from teaching in the lower grades. “Our society has long believed that females are the nurturers, and males are the breadwinners and disciplinarians. I consider myself a very nurturing person.” Yet, in college, he was denied a student teaching placement as a kindergarten teacher because he is male.

Things may be different now than 30 years ago when Larson was beginning his career, but Jeffrey Barnett, Dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, said male elementary candidates are “not aggressively recruited.”

“Society’s perception of male teachers is slowly changing. Men entering education often regarded teaching as the first step to rising through the ranks to administrative positions, more so than women,” he said. Barnett added that although Whitewater tries to steer men toward primary education, too many districts are hesitant to hire them for fear of potential lawsuits.

Larson remembers that eight years ago, when he was finally given a kindergarten position, he took some courses to get up to speed. “The first piece of advice I received in these courses was to never use words of endearment or affection with my students. The second was to never touch them.” None of the women in his classes was given this advice.

John Peschl, a 3rd-grade teacher at Westside in Sun Prairie remembers that when he taught 1st grade last year, he was “swarmed with parents.”

“Many wanted to be involved, but I could tell that some were here because I’m a male.”

Peschl added: “I feel suspicion and prejudice all the time. I feel like I must do more to prove myself than my female colleagues. Being single is another strike against me.”

Espindola added that many times in conferences teachers are asked, “Do you have any children?” If they answer “no,” the standard response is, “Then you don’t understand.” However, she admits that she is not subjected to the same scrutiny as her male colleagues.

All of these teachers agree that society needs to change. Larson said, “Men are steered from the early grades because there are very few role models” to mentor them. When I entered education, there was no effort to recruit males into early education training.”

Lessor asked, “What has our university system done to encourage men to enter the profession? Or to enter elementary education? Finally, what has society done to demand this gender equity?”

Barnett admits that although there is talk of a statewide initiative to address, in part, the lack of men in primary grades, there is no concerted effort in Wisconsin to recruit men for elementary teaching.

Until society’s attitudes of distrust and fear regarding male teachers are dispelled, those teachers feel compelled to err on the side of caution.

“I make a conscious choice every day to make sure my door remains open,” Peschl said. Lessor has a “community coffee pot” in his room to ensure a “lot of traffic.”

Larson takes advantage of the parent conferences held at the start of Stoughton’s school year to address his concerns as well as theirs. “I tell my parents that small children will often say ‘I love you’ to their teachers. I ask the parents if it’s all right to tell them that I care for them, too. I also ask them if it’s all right to hug their children. Then I ask them to give me written permission.” To Larson’s knowledge, none of his female colleagues feels the need to exercise such caution.

Lessor believes that as more men teach in the lower grades, society’s stereotypes can be broken down. “We need to dispel the notion that teaching is ‘what women do.’ I want to show kids they can do anything.”

Peschl recalled, “I had many positive experiences with male teachers as a kid. I looked up to my teachers like I looked up to my parents.”

Larson concluded, “We need to have good male role models in elementary education,” adding that boys will look up to their male teachers and think, “I like this person. Maybe I could do this, too.”

Just 21% of teachers nationwide are male

Men are in demand in America’s public schools as a greater focus is placed on the need to diversify the historically female-dominated profession. Nationally, NEA is waging a drive to get more men into teaching. At the association’s 2002 Representative Assembly, NEA members approved a measure to “identify, recognize, recruit and retain” more male teachers, with an emphasis on elementary and minority teachers.

According to NEA research, as of 2004, just 21% of the nation’s
3 million teachers were men. And over the last two decades, the ratio of males to females in teaching has steadily declined. The number of male teachers now stands at a 40-year low.

The percentage of male teachers in elementary schools has fallen regularly since 1981 – that year, it reached an all-time high of 18%. Today, a scant 9% of elementary school teachers are men. Likewise, the percentage of males in secondary schools has fluctuated over the years, but now stands at its lowest level – 35%.

“The sad reality is that a young boy could go through his entire education without ever having a teacher who looks like me,” said NEA President Reg Weaver. “This is not a reflection of the world or our communities, and it’s certainly not a reflection of how we want our kids to see the world.”

The male teacher dilemma

Colleges of education historically have a tough time luring men because of dated notions that teaching is women’s work.
Salaries are low for teachers when compared to salaries for other professionals, which lowers the prestige and social value of a career in teaching.

Many men don’t see the teaching profession as a lucrative way to provide for their families.

The prevailing philosophy within education is that men go into teaching to “teach the subject,” and women enter teaching to nurture and develop children. Since males tend to gravitate toward secondary teaching, this leaves a critical shortage of male teachers at the elementary level.

Strategies for increasing the number of male teachers

Identify and recruit young men into teaching in high school
There is a perennial shortage of male applicants to schools of education. Initiatives to identify prospective teachers early in their academic careers have proven successful. Secondary school surveys, career counseling, and college prep courses can help boost enrollment.

Teachers: Spread the word!
Teachers can talk up the golden opportunities of teaching to their male students. NEA asked the nation’s teachers to select, from a list of options, the principal reason they originally decided to become a teacher. The influence of a teacher in elementary or secondary school was the fourth most frequently chosen reason (32%). Most notably, teachers under 30 gave this reason with greater frequency than did teachers over 30 (39% versus 31%).

More information from the NEA

Posted September 28, 2006