Why are most elementary school teachers women?

Question

Is it that elementary teachers are really just an extension of the mother role itno the workplace?
I accidentally called my 6th grade teacher "Mom" once as a kid, so
I know the freudian slip betrayed that surrogate mother role that elementary teachers play big time.
Woman also can capture the child more inside themselves. When you see young early 20's teachers interect with kids, it almost seems as if the young ladies are kids themselves. Look at them read kids a story, and the childlike enthusiasm emoted as they turn the pages.

compare how the two bushes read kids stories for proof....George W is absolutely awful reading kids stories, and seems to be preoccupied with something(One time he had plenty to be preoccupied with as the towers were falling!).
Laura, in contrast, does a wonderful job, and seems to chennel the kid in here as much as the most enthusiastic early 20's new teacher.
Women are just better with kids...they bond more, read to them better, have more patience, and most importantly, really love the kids, or at least most of them, except for a few brats....

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/images/20040709-11_weblbclifford-774v.jpg

I, as a male, would last about 5 minutes....
I have a hard enough time dealing with my girlfriends kids....can't imagine being responsible for a whole batch of 30 of 'em!

You are so correct about the male teachers
falling into the effeminate trap. I think it's as much the way the male teachers "think" others are perceiving them, as much as the actual perceiving.
I also think that some parents still freak over a male teacher teaching kids younger
than 12, though strangely enough all the
molesting seems to be done by female teachers(those famous cases in the news lst 10 or so years).
Let's face it, most people think of men in elementary positions as effeminate at best,
if not queer. The only position that saves face with masculinity would be school principal.
I will say that the one male elementary teacher I knew, that taught 5th grade,
had a whole lot of sex with the single, and even some married teachers. He's a
good -lloking guy, and a jock-type, and
the captive female audience of teachers
led to a lot of escapades. People made
fun, when he was actually banging half
the staff. Some of the older married teachers even came on to him!

I will say one thing about my elementary teachers, in the 1970's....they were
truly wonderful people, and some of the most important people in my life. I will also
say that some were so kind and mentoring
that I could almost be said to have loved them. Not quite in the way of a parent, but not far off. I know a lot have either passed on or are quite old now, and I hope every blessed one is doing well....If I could just talk to on surviving teacher up to 6th, it would be more exciting than aly long lost
situation I could think of. It would be truly wonderful to see any of them again.
God blass all of the following:
1st grade - Mrs. Farouh
2nd grade - Mrs. SIngleton

3rd grade mrs. hartung

3rd grade mrs. hartung
4th grade mrs. bonn
5th grade mrs kahn
6th grade mrs. damm
and my ravishing(first crush) kindergarten
teacher, Miss Hollister!

Here is a link to my ele school, which unfortunately is a ghetto now........turned that way in the mid 80's.......but its still there

http://www.schools-data.com/schools/BERGER-VANDENBERG-ES-DOLTON.html

I spent a whole lot of time as my local
library, which also had wonderful mother surrogate figures in the guise of librarians.
More people absolutely priceless, worth more than their weight in gold. ..collectively,
I may have spent the equivalent of a year at the local Dolton library. could just seemingly disappear into the aisles of books, just grab one and enter a whole other world......now its a ghetto library, just like the school, but thats how life goes,
i guess...

http://www2.sls.lib.il.us/DOS/

link to the library I practically lived at as a kid

Answer 1

i think you answered your own question !! VERY, VERY GOOD OBSERVATION!!!

Answer 2

Unfortunately there is a stigma attached to male elementary school teachers. Ask anyone. They will think that a male elementary teacher is effiminate. The same things applies to a male nurse. The history goes back to the 1800's when only women could be teachers and they had to be widows, or spinsters. Married women were considered as needed in the home and it was not appropriate for a married woman to teach school and often she could not be hired if married. Men did not teach at all...not at the elementary level. Also many high school guidance counselours are ill equipped or not qualifed to really direct women into different careers. Many girls to go high school guidance and are told to be a nurse or a teacher.
I also agree with your observations about the nature of women as teachers. Women do fill this role but I wanted to give you an opinion of why so many women are elementary teachers.

Answer 3

More and more men are becoming teachers now but teaching in the past has just been something that women do for the most part.

My daughters school has 4 male teachers that teach in the upper grades (4 and 5)

Answer 4

In the UK one reason put forward for the present dearth of male primary (elementary) school teachers is that men are frightened, in this PC, and highly litigious era, of being accused of sexual assault. For example, if a child hurts itself the male teacher (often a father himself), might comfort the child by putting an arm around him/her - but next day the child's parents are likely to accuse the poor bloke of assault! It has happened.

Yet to comfort a distressed child is the sort of thing that, in my childhood, would have been the automatic reaction by passersby if they saw a lone child fall over and injure itself in the street.

However I agree with you that primary/elementary teaching does seem to be more of a woman's calling, but since such classes contain both boys and girls, the occasional male role model is surely welcome?

Oh well, modern times!

Answer 5

Because men can not handle small kids well.
My daughter called her teacher mom a year ago. BUT her teacher was a man. HA HA. She was so embarrassed. I still pick on her to this day about it.
Oh and my sister is an elementary teacher. I could not do it I don't like a lot of little kids.

Answer 6

Most posters here have it right. Women have more patience with children and most men just don't like kids, other than their own! Sometimes, thats questionable too. How many men that you know, actually enjoy ages 1-6??

Answer 7

countless of the justifications stated are component to the difficulty. yet another element is that traditionally adult males have been discouraged from coaching toddlers. Even 25 years in the past, many districts does not hire adult males to be hassle-free college instructors. there have been a style of motives for this, commencing from pedophile concerns to the sexist thinking that adult males did not belong with toddlers or does not be as stable with toddlers as women human beings. in the previous couple of an prolonged time, adult males have ultimately made headway in the hassle-free instructor section.

Answer 8

It is slowly changing, but, in the past, many more women than men were teachers.

Answer 9

Because women are more likely to be loved by the children in that age...I think!...

Answer 10

few men can tolerate grade school children for more than a few minutes.

Answer 11

Because most men don't have the patience for little kids. (I didn't say ALL men, I said MOST, so don't hate on me, ok)