We have a male teacher that can understand me, he could tell me what to do, you know, to help me learn more. According to the National Education Association, only 9.1 percent of elementary school teachers are male. A figure that s barely more than half of what it was in 1980 when it topped out at 17.3 percent. Fortier admits, being a man surrounded by a sea of Estrogen, as he calls it, makes him feel like an enigma. It feels like a dying breed.
Experts say when female teachers dominate schools, boys sometimes miss out on an important lesson.
It s very difficult for a woman to teach a young boy how to be a man, says psychologist Spencer Gelernter, in the same way that it s very difficult for a man to teach a girl how to be a woman. Experts say for children who don t have male teachers in school, it s more important than ever that fathers, or other male adults, provide a strong role model in a child s life. So these days what I recommend to parents, says Gelernter, is that men have to take time off from work, they have to be involved with their children, and that means if you ve got a third grader, you ve got to play with you child like another third grader, get on the ground, be another third grader. Teachers Male elementary school teachers have recently been perceived as somewhat of a dying breed. However, there is reason to hope that this trend will change.