What we need are a few good men

Indiana school officials are on a worthy mission to get more male teachers in classrooms, especially at the elementary level. Only one in five Indiana teachers in kindergarten through eighth grade is a man. The number of men who choose teaching as a career is at a nationwide 40-year low.

It’s not that the women who teach are doing a bad job. It’s the signal that having so few men in the classroom sends to kids, especially in a time when there are no men in many homes, either. “Kids are really smart; if they see no men in the classroom, what message do they get from that?” asks Bryan Nelson, a former teacher and college professor who heads MenTeach, a Minnesota group that aims to reverse the male teacher shortage. “They think it must not be valuable. If something’s important, wouldn’t men want to spend time there?” A balanced set of role models is critical in the formative years, especially for children who come from unstable homes, says Jim Killen, who heads the Indiana Youth Services Association.

There are some formidable challenges ahead. Many men, for example think the job pays too little and has too little status, and there isn’t a push by high school counselors to steer males into teaching. But it’s worth the effort. Women have made significant and welcome inroads into traditionally male careers. Here’s one area where it’s the men who need to do some catching up.

13 October 2004
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/9899544.htm

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