I have long pondered and reflected upon the delicate situation I find myself in as a male elementary school teacher. I've talked to a lot of people, men and women, about working in a female dominated workplace as opposed to a male dominated workplace. Not a surprise to me that even the ladies I have spoken to about this matter admit in past experiences working with all men, it was much easier than working with all women. I can't say, collectively speaking, that this is always the case, though it is a good area of study. There are lots of articles studying the differences between fathers and mothers as far as what they offer children, but I've never bumped into a study about men teachers verse women teachers. I'm sure there are plenty out there, however.
Outside of any study, however, are my own personal experiences. Of course, I am who I am and it would be hard to generalize from one experience, but as I say, I have talked to a lot of guys and how they feel about being a teacher in the elementary school.
For the most part, and in all the places I have been, there have been only a small number of male elementary classroom teachers. Your male influence in many elementary schools comes from the maintenance crew, physical education teacher, and perhaps some resource teachers. By and large, the rest of the people working together in the elementary school are female. This poses an immediate dilemma for men entering into this situation because men teachers and women teachers are different in so many ways, yet I have felt many pressures to conform to a woman's standard as a classroom teacher. Of course, I've never accepted that and have always been my own person, but even in doing that there have been challenges.
So what do I want women in the elementary to remember about their male counterparts? We are needed tremendously by young children, especially in light of all the broken families that exist in our day. We have, generally speaking, unique ways of interacting and responding to children that may be different than a woman's style of interaction. We are seemingly less regimented by our various natures, more carefree, and in full possession of our own male idealism.
Of course, women need to be respected in much the same way by their male counterparts, with the understanding that we by our very genders are going to see things differently, respond to situations differently, and react to situations differently, and that should be observed with respect. I feel we males at the elementary level have a different role than women to fulfill and that it is a necessary role and if we were made to value the same ideals as women teachers, then it wouldn't be like having men in the school at all.
