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Something non-political to discuss:

Premise: People seem to largely agree that children would benefit from greater interaction with male role models in their lives. Especially with the prevalance of single family homes, often with a mother as the sole active parent, child interactions with male role models proves all the more important.

Issue: Society discourages males from showing any active interest in children other than their own. Media obsession with abductions, pedophilia (is that word still filtered?) and other misconduct has cast a shroud of suspicion over men who show the same interest in children which we find acceptable in women. There is a marked contrast in reaction, for example, betweem a solitary male who smiles at a child playing in a park and a female who does the same. Consequently, men are discouraged from becoming teachers (especially at the pre-high school level), counselors, trainers or other tasks which would put them into positive contact with young children. Perhaps worse, males are denied opportunities to build their own parenting skills before they become parents. Unlike females, males are often considered a risk as baby-sitters, coaches or other tasks which build care-giving skills at a younger age. When they are, it's less often to children of the opposite gender.

Thoughts? Brilliant solutions?


The above is largely anecdotal and from observation. If you want to argue it, knock yourself out.

I think that is a pretty accurate summation of how things look about now (editing to add that is to Joph and not anywhere near Shadows idiotic rambling). I never even knew about males being discouraged from taking on an elementary teaching position until my son was in kindergarten and the topic came up on a mother forum I frequent. I find it sad.

First and foremost, male family members of a single mom stepping in to help fill the role of a missing dad would be a tremendous help while almost ridding the issue of concern. It's a shame we dont have the village raising a child concept anymore in our society, for if we did, this wouldnt be as big of an issue as it is now.

Getting into sports coaching would help kids have a mentor to look up to. Volenteering at the local Y. Tutoring. All of these I believe do local background checks which help alleviate anxiety of parents.

The fear parents may initially have of men when working with small children goes out the window once they see a man in a volenteer position do wonders for their child. You can not get rid of the initial apprehension. But by males getting more active in the area it forces people to rethink their thoughts. You will always have bad apples in the mix, be it male or female. But the more males that get out there and show society men are not evil creatures when it comes to kids not their own offspring, the more accepting it would be.



Edited, Aug 12th 2008 12:56pm by DSD

I hope the other stupid one you are referring to is Varus and not myself

Solutions - well lots.

I suppose solving the whole societal issue of sexual perversion could help.

There are organizations (the Big Brother program comes to mind) that encourage male mentoring of youngsters. I think having an accredited organization backing a relationship could help assuage some of the sceptism.

And then the practical stuff: Stay within the public eye, don't do things that could be suspect (pats on the butt, hugs) even though they are completely innocent and maybe even seemingly necessary at the moment.

I'd argue that the whole male pedophile scare has seriously changed the order of things.

Personally, when my kids were young my main baby-sitter was a boy, his brother was our alternate. Lol, I never suspected him of any foul play about our house. He did however, recieve local infamy for knockin-up the police-chiefs daughter when the two were seniors in high school.

There never really was an over abundance of men teachers in the primary grades. I can't think of any in my OLD school career before I reached 4th grade. Im not convinced there are fewer now.

I'd also question any adult that took an overly personal interest in any particular child for no apparent reason.

Mostly though I'm only suspicious of Catholic Priests;)

Hmmm, I might have to disagree with this. It may have been true in the past, but more and more fathers are expected to step up and not be just a 5pm and weekend daddy, but to play a very active role in their kids lives. Maybe its the circle of people I am around, but a lot of fathers jump to this challenge and thrive.


There are parenting classes available for both moms and dads which help teach teamwork communication, offer local resources for things to do as a family, and being effective in teaching and discipline as a parent. It would be interesting if they made these more common, or even (I shy away from saying mandatory but highly suggested maybe?) for new parents, as well as offering it every couple of years depending on the age and stage of the children

The "all men are child-molesting freaks" scare will hopefully run its course and die out soon. Of course, that doesn't help things right now.

I'm not paranoid about men that want to be around children. And luckily, there seem to still be plenty of males that want to participate in children's lives where I live. My son is playing football now, and he has one of the best coaching teams there is for his age group. These men are doing a great job with all the boys and as far as I can tell, only one parent has been upset, and that's because the coach won't let her little darling be quarterback, haha.

Could be.

Anyone ever encounter male day-care workers?

Only the (retired) husband of a day care owner.

Thinking back, the first male teacher I had was in 7th grade.

There's only one male daycare worker at our center where we take our kids, but all the kids love him.

I can't quite understand how they are directed. Certainly within their 'Education' education the would-be teachers learn the pros and cons of teaching different groups of kids. And perhaps some men might be chased off by the prospect of a lawsuit. If so, however you have to wonder how comitted they were. They may be just as scared off by the prospect of having to deal with a kid that just pooped his pants.

I'm certainly not convinced that the small percentage of men as primary grade teachers has changed significantly. If there is some proof to suggest it, I could probably buy into the reason as being, at least, partially due to the pedophile paranoia.

From what she said it starts when a male decides to go into school for education, that it is just strongly suggested by their teachers their best bet is in middle or high school careers. And within the school itself, male teachers are just never fully accepted by their peers. It makes for a tough road for those who think about teaching as a career, and most men opt for the road that is less hard to travel.



I dont think the small percentage has changed but I think thats what this thread is getting at. There has been and probably will be drastically smaller portion of teachers who are male and that in itself is a shame when you are looking for male rolemodels

Edited, Aug 12th 2008 1:28pm by DSD