Where are the male elementary teachers?

In another blog entry, a poster mentioned that the overwhelming majority of the teachers in elementary school are white and female. This, unfortunately, is correct. At my school, there are only three male classroom teachers and a total of five male teachers altogether. This is the same way at my wife's school and the other schools that I have worked for.

Why is this? I think there may be several causes. First, teaching elementary school is considered a woman's job. Historically, all teachers have been women, especially on the elementary level. This is starting to change, but it is taking a long time.

Second, men who become teachers would rather teach in middle and high school. This is a patience thing, I believe. Working with young children takes a great deal of patience, something that most men do not have an abundance of.

Finally, there is a lot of stigma associated with males teaching elementary school. I have personally been asked if I am gay or a pedophile. While most people will say that they think there should be more males in elementary schools, many of them also believe that a lot of the male teachers are looking for easy access to young prey.

I realize that this article was written from my personal point of view and is not based on factual information. I wrote it from my own experiences in public schools and in college. Please do not attempt to find any hard facts in what I wrote. Everything here is subjective.