The Multicultural Clash Room |
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| The culture of American teaching is a largely white and female domain. This fact is not lost on Blacks and men, and a strained tension exists between the various communities. This has resulted from a history of subtle gender issues and cultural traditions. Long before women entered the work place in great numbers, public school teaching was seen as one of the few appropriate professions for a female, and to this day, women dominate our classrooms, particularly in the early grades. During slavery in this country, Blacks were forbidden access to public schools as students, let alone teachers. It wasnt until a hundred years after the civil war that the federal government passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which included a provision to protect the constitutional rights to an education for all, regardless of race. An old familiar saying has it that teaching is womens work, the underlying implication being that teaching isnt fit work for men. This is an echo of the schoolyard taunt: school is for girls. Boys who do well in class are often thought to be sissies or bookworms and minority students who excel often must face their peers accusations of acting white. Traditions dont die easily. US Department of Education statistics reveal a public teaching force that is 90% white and 75% female. The near total absence of Black, male instructors in urban schools, particularly grade schools is a shocking failure of both the system and the society at large. For various reasons, Black children, and boys in particular, dont fair as well in elementary school as other groups. The equalizing push we get from the Head Start program disappears by the third grade. A large number of students of color are turned off by their experience. By the time they get to high school, these disenfranchised students begin dropping out at a rate nearly twice that of their white counterparts. Its easy to see why someone who attended poorly run inner-city schools would reject teaching as a career. It is not, however, entirely clear why more young African-Americans, unhappy with their schooling, dont attempt to correct the situation for future minority students by becoming teachers. Education is widely recognized as having a key role in combating poverty. Why havent more African-Americans embraced the classroom as a place to affect social change? The school gate is a door of opportunity. Overwhelming majorities of Black Americans suggest education as a top social priority, and yet relatively few actually choose to teach. Many of those who do decide to enter the field, quickly become dissatisfied and change careers. Why arent more men of any race leading our classrooms? The importance of positive male role models for boys is painfully obvious, but men have failed to respond. Much of the problem appears to be negative assumptions and social perceptions. The overriding factor is the social stigma attached to being a man in a women's field, but the issue of low wages also contributes to the lack of male representation among the ranks of public school instructors. Valid arguments can be made for raising the salaries of educators, but teachers pay is not out of line with other professions. On average, teachers are paid a little more than $40,000 a year. Still, teaching has been thought of as womens work, due also in part to the patient and nurturing nature required to do the job. This brings up yet another social factor: a substantial number of men have a fear of being accused of child sex abuse. Whether real or imagined, this threat is often cited by men as a reason to stay away from the classroom. None of these issues seem daunting enough to keep men away from such an important profession in such large numbers. Whatever the cause, the negative effect is quite clear. An essay by Sarah Farquhar suggests the gravity of the situation. Farquhar writes, "The scarcity of men in teaching is having serious consequences for the status of the teaching profession, educational outcomes for boys and the social development of boys and girls."
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