A few weeks ago, Ryan mentioned he the only male primary teacher in his school. My theory (in his comments section) was that in several countries (like in India) teacher pay is graded by class taught, with those teaching higher classes getting better pay. Moreover, teaching a higher class may have a longer, or more strenuous work-day. The two facts combined with the traditional role of the man as the primary bread earner results in men choosing to teach higher classes (or alternately, the long hours keep some women off this vocation).
Now it seems that part of the reason may be attributed to a selection bias. It seems that the stereotype of the male sexual offender is making men are less attractive to school Boards and Administrators an/or making teaching in elementary school less attractive to qualified male teachers.
A Wall Street Journal article has more:
Are we teaching children that men are out to hurt them? The answer, on many fronts, is yes. Child advocate John Walsh advises parents to never hire a male babysitter. Airlines are placing unaccompanied minors with female passengers rather than male passengers. Soccer leagues are telling male coaches not to touch players.
Child-welfare groups say these are necessary precautions, given that most predators are male. But fathers’ rights activists and educators now argue that an inflated predator panic is damaging men’s relationships with kids. Some men are opting not to get involved with children at all, which partly explains why many youth groups can’t find male leaders, and why just 9% of elementary-school teachers are male, down from 18% in 1981.
I’m not sure I agree with the reasoning here. I feel it may be a selection in favour of women not a selection against men that leads to the skewed percentage of male elementary-school teachers. You can however, read the entire story here.
Further Reading (click on numbers)
#1 Sex Offender Alert: Know when a Sex Offender moves into your area (Couldn’t help noticing that all the offenders profiled on this page were male!
#2: Men’s Awareness: A blog that showcases several examples to flout the male sex offender stereotype
This offends me as a male, a dad, and an educator. And as someone who studied math as an undergrad, the flawed logic isn’t hard to see. And it’s not at all surprising.
“Most sexual predators are male,” may be a true statement. But as anyone who’s studied logic knows, the converse of that statment, “Most males are sexual predators,” is a logical fallacy.
I get nervous when I see us building systems and making policy (or recommendations) based on the exceptions. How about something like, “Before you leave your child with a babysitter, make sure you’ve thoroughly investigated the sitter’s background…”
I detest alarmist stuff like this that paints all men (or women, or blacks, or Hispanics, or gays…) with the same brush…
Saying that you’ll never hire a babysitter because they are male is just down right discrimination.
Society is horrible, teaching people that men can never be good at taking care of children.
I doubt if even 80% of the convicted child sex offenders even did anything wrong. Everytime an adult male is with children not of their own family everyone has to suspect something.
Women can do just as much harm to a child as a man.
When people hire babysitters, they need to look at experience and how they connect with children, not the gender of the babysitter. If a male babysitter has many references and positive experience with other children, what is the problem then?