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http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0304/S00076.htm
Maxim Institute
April 11 2003
Teaching the young
It's
no surprise that a decade after the conviction of Peter Ellis in the
Christchurch Civic Creche case the proportion of men in early childhood
education (ECE) has fallen from 2 percent to 1 percent. Men have never
figured in large numbers in ECE teaching, but their presence is considered
important by some educationalists given that 40 percent of children now come
from sole parent homes, and many of these will have no men closely involved
in their lives.
Of the nearly 3000 people training in ECE in 2001, only 31 were men; of the
nearly 1700 kindergarten teachers in New Zealand, a mere 21 were men;
in the primary service, the proportion of male teachers is around 20 percent
(compared with 40 percent in 1970). As in other western countries, the number
of men in New Zealand
teaching children under age 12 is falling. But no-one seems too bothered by
the statistics, but should we be concerned?
As always, there's a lot going on behind the statistics, which are really
only symptomatic of wider social trends. The growth of a feminised society
has had a down side. For example, men have been encouraged to become more in touch
with their emotions and more 'sensitive', but at the same time, this message
has sat in tension with increasing anxiety and accusations of male physical
and sexual abuse. They've been told to be more in touch but less touchy. Then
there's political correctness and the fact that many men are simply too
afraid to be involved in a profession where any form of touch is construed as
abuse or suggestive of sexual predation. Researchers however such as US
psychologist Warren Farrell points out that men are vital to the emotional
and social maturation of children. Kids need both men and women - we know
that - but a feminised culture obscures and confuses this message.
The statistics for men involved in early and primary education reflect many
decades of cultural change. One way to see more male role models is to
challenge the inadequacies of feminist thought and expose the consequences it
is having on the development of our children.
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