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One News The Early Childhood Council says
the paedophile hysteria of the 1990s has caused a dramatic decline in the
number of men opting to work in childcare centres. New Zealand's largest
representative body of licensed early childhood centres has called for a
partnership between Government and childcare organisations to encourage more
men into childcare. The call follows TVNZ's Sunday
programme which revealed men were more than 2% of those working in early
childhood care ('teacher-staffed, government-funded early childhood
services') in 1992, but less than 1% now - and falling. The council said the absence of
men from early childhood teaching was a national disgrace. Chief Executive Sue Thorne said
New Zealand compared "very badly" to other developed countries and
the need for action was urgent. "With few men in our primary
schools and fewer in childcare centres we have created a society in which we
have quarantined our children from our men. "This is a project of
destructive social change with very negative consequences for children." "[Men] feel they will be
treated as suspect until proven innocent. And we know, as a matter of record,
that some parents will not enrol children in a centre if men are present. "We have created a culture in
which it can be dangerous to reputation and future for a childcare male to
cuddle a distressed child, to change a nappy or express affection. This
anti-male bias, however, does not change the fact that children need to
experience men as nurturing." The presence of men in childcare
was important for the many children being brought up with absent fathers, she
said. And it was especially important if such children came from at-risk
environments in which they had experienced men as unreliable or abusive. "The potential benefits of
such children spending time with strong, gentle men were incalculable,"
Thorne said. "Why is it that the same
people who speak with passion about the absence of women from the boardroom
are silent about the absence of men from the classroom?" Thorne called for a partnership
between the government, the teacher unions, the education institutions and
child care associations to get more men onto the childcare frontline. Men were also needed to help
resolve severe labour shortages in the sector, Thorne said. "The system needs them. The
children need them. It's time things changed." |
