Male Teachers Essay, Research Paper

It is not very often that we see or hear of male teachers in preschools and elementary schools. Often times, male teachers in preschools and elementary schools are perceived as gay or looked down upon as being ?wimpy? because of the amount of sensitivity required to teach young children. While being a male teacher is not looked upon as glamorously by society from the male sex as being a doctor or lawyer, society needs more male teachers. Many advantages and disadvantages arise in the essay pertaining to this profession being held by a man.

?I don?t have the singular power over language of a lawyer, the physical force of a construction worker, the command over fellow workers of a surgeon, the wheeling and dealing transitions of a businessman? (379-380). Meier goes on to say ?my job has no bonuses or promotions. No complimentary box seats at the ball park. No cab fare home. No drinking buddies after work. No briefcase. No suit. No power lunches. No taking clients out for cocktails? (381). However, Meier goes on to say that there are more important things in his life than going to sports events.

Many men have different reasons for becoming teachers. Meier did not want to choose the careers chosen by his friends in the fields of law, medicine or business. Instead, he wanted to ?help a child learn to write his name for the first time, finding someone a new friend, or sharing in the hilarity of reading about Winnie the Pooh getting so stuck in a hole that only his head and rear show? (380).

My mother got her degree in education in the sixties. She was a teacher for about a year before she got into medical sales. When asked if she liked teaching she replied with a simple ?no.? She went on to say that ?teaching was just what women became then.? Taken aback, I thought about this last statement. Why should people be what society expects them to be? It is for this reason that there are so many female teachers and a serious lack of males in the teaching profession at the preschool and elementary school level. Women are still expected to be the teachers and men are expected to be the doctors and lawyers. While we are slowly moving away from this mode, our society is still clinging on to the belief that this is where men and women should be.