Standing in the Gap

“So I sought for a man among them who would
Make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me
On behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it;
But I found no one.” NKJV Ezekiel Ch. 22 v. 30

There is a common saying, “Where have all the good men gone”, that is ringing throughout our country today. These cries are not coming from our Armed Forces or from the political establishment in Washington D.C. They also have nothing to do with men in business or industry. Even law enforcement and rescue services seem to have no lack of “heroes”. No, these cries are coming from our education system, particularly early childhood education. According to the National Association of Education, currently only nine percent of elementary school teachers are men. In a country that values equality amongst the sexes, why such a huge discrepancy? There are several common factors that are keeping men out of the classroom: low pay, threat of sexual harassment charges, low career opportunities, and the stigma of it being woman’s work. On the positive side there have been four factors identified that seems to keep men in the teaching profession: men that have previous experience with children, the desire to be a good role model, a positive working environment, and men who are parents.
First, we’ll examine the teacher pay problem. According to the American Federation of Teachers in their 2005 Survey and Analysis of Teacher Salary Trend, the average salary for a teacher was a median of $47,602. While a first year teacher’s median income started at $31,753. This may seem like very little, but again, according to the American Federation of Teachers 2005 Survey, teachers still made six percent more per year than the average American worker.
So, why the big gripe about pay? If one wanted to make a lot of money there are many career choices available to pursue to make that type of money. Pay alone cannot be the determining factor as to whether or not a man teaches. I personally work in the retail industry, which is a very large industry. As a manager for Target, my pay is very competitive yet still falls below the national average for teachers. The difference here is actually teaching not for the money, but because it is the profession that satisfies the most. Being happy with one’s career is essential in life and knowing that teaching accomplishes this is crucial to personal development and the development of the students in the class room. Having the desire to work closely with children is far nobler than wanting to earn that top CEO salary.
This leads me into the next aspect of the lack of men in education: the growing threat of sexual molestation. A lot of men are aware of the awful amount of child predators out there and seem to think that working with closely with small children will somehow lead to being suspected as having inappropriate relations with these children. So, out of fear, less and less men are willing to face these challenges. But the men who see this as a chance to provide positive role model to children are not as easily turned away. I remember my tenth grade American History teacher, Mr. Blackmon. Other than my two math teachers and the coaches that conducted physical education, Mr. Blackmon was the only other male teacher that I had in high school. His impact on my life has lasted for almost fifteen years. He was able to make history come alive for his students. He was always available for questions and it was easy to see his passion and genuine concern and care for his students. It is teachers like Mr. Blackmon that bring the aspect of role models to the forefront, more specifically, the aspect of male role models. The need for male role models is increasingly urgent as it seems that society as a whole is leaving young boys behind. For example, my oldest son is six and I have two daughters ages four and three. I can recall picking up my son at school while having my daughters with me and the teachers at my son’s school seemed to more excited over the prospect of my daughters attending in the near future than the fact that my son was already a student. It seems to me that we tend to let the boys do their own thing while showering attention upon the girls and positively enforcing the girls to do their best. It is though the pendulum has swung far back the other way and our boys are being left behind. I realize that the parents have a major role to play in this also, but as there happens to be more and more single parents raising children, it is becoming more and more crucial that we have strong male role models within out school system. Yet forcing the male teachers into this role of disciplinarian can have its’ drawbacks by making the male teachers seem almost impersonal and not very good at building relationships with the students.
Another often cited reason for the lack of male teachers is the lack of career opportunity. Most men are not happy being in a work environment that has no career advancement. In the retail industry where I work, career advancement is a huge factor in most people’s decisions to go into retail. The fact that they can advance in position and pay is very appealing. Yet, having a positive work environment is also crucial to advancement. Most teachers teach because they love to teach and the male teacher is often the same. A lot of schools provide excellent working conditions but the isolation of male teachers is what is problematic. It is projected that within this decade, almost two million teachers will be retiring from our school system and add to this that approximately forty percent of new teachers leave the profession within the first five years and you definitely have the beginning of a crisis on your hands. So, encouraging more men to teach seems to be essential to education. By not isolating male teachers and providing them with the necessary resources to train and teach their work environments will improve dramatically and more men will look favorably upon teaching.
Of course this leads us into the whole realm of teaching as being a “woman’s’ job.” This has really only come about recently in our nation’s history. Early American school teachers were predominately male. Yet the vast majority of teachers today are female and many have referred to this as the “feminizing of education” . As a father myself, I can certainly attest to this assumption with male teachers, but as with stereotypes, we must be careful not to lump all male teachers into certain groups. The obvious benefit to having male teachers that have children themselves is that these men are often more mature and have more patience when dealing with children. This is not to say that single male teachers are less likely to be able to relate to children, it’s just easier for fathers to do what comes natural to them. I know from personal experience that when dealing with children, I have more patience and understanding now that I am a father. This aspect can lead men into the education system and give them the same satisfaction with their students that they have at home being parents. In spite of the fact that society views women as more nurturing, a father who nurtures is often regarded on the same level as a mother if not looked to with a little greater respect.
If women are doing such a good job educating our children, then why should there be such a strong pervasive concern about the lack of men in Early Childhood Education? Why are there articles after articles and research upon research trying to figure out just what the problem is? Perhaps women teachers have been going at it practically alone for long enough. Men have seemed to desert the classroom leaving only a remnant behind as a lasting legacy to what was once primarily a male role in society. Also, I believe that we owe it to our students to present the best possible application of education that only comes about when male and female teachers unite together in order to teach children not only basic education but also basic social skills.
According to Proverbs Ch. 22 V. 6 we are to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”. We are failing our children by teaching them that men have very little to no place in teaching except as a stepping stone into higher administration positions. This does a disservice to students as they do not have the interaction that they need in order to formulate correct social skills to operate in society. Although in my personal opinion, I believe that this is simply a symptom of a larger problem that is originating in the home itself and is simply spilling over into the school system. Male teachers are very much needed and can definitely have a tremendous impact on their students, their schools, and their communities. It is disheartening to think that most children can count the number of male teachers that they had on one hand. Perhaps our society will find a way to fix this problem over the course of time and this is a problem that has to be corrected soon as the future of our country is hanging in the balance. If we are to continue to be a diverse nation and lead by example we must be willing to produce these effects in the classroom and not just by higher grades or “no child left behind”. It will definitely take men and women working together to come up with a solution.

Character Building

Building character in our children is essential to our growth as a nation. Our society is built around laws and respect for the individual. With out a strong sense of morality, civilization crumbles. Character builds respect and sensibility. Integrity, honor, respect, and trustworthiness are the building blocks of character. As teachers, we will teach these things everyday. We model these things in our own lives for our students to see. They watch our reactions to everything to see if we uphold our own character or if we violate our principles and compromise our morals. Teachers set the standard for our society because we educate society. We must teach character by our behavior and model morality without biases.

Ethics of Teaching

What do ethics mean to you? Most would agree that ethics is a standard of behavior that is acceptable to society as a whole. Ethics go hand in hand with our legal system and our basic understanding of right and wrong. As a future teacher in the great state of Alabama what will ethics mean to me and what should it mean to all teachers?

Let’s look at the Alabama Educator Code of Ethics. As teachers, we should be held to a much higher standard than other professions. It is as a teacher that you are directly responsible for shaping the minds of children on a daily basis. Every state has its own code of ethics and Alabama’s code is similar. The Alabama Educator Code of Ethics contains a total of nine standards. Those standards are as follows: Professional Conduct, Trustworthiness, Unlawful Acts, Teacher/Student Relationship, Alcohol/Drug/Tobacco Use or Possession, Public Funds & Property, Remunerative Conduct, Maintenance of Confidentiality, and Abandonment of Contract. The code wraps itself up with disciplinary actions if a teacher is found in violation of any of these standards. Living in our media infused, politically correct, and lawsuit engulfed society; ethical standards such as these are pretty well understood but are they adhered to? From a multicultural aspect, most of these standards seem to be met on a daily basis. There is one standard in the code of ethics that I believe is not being upheld. The Teacher/Student Relationship standard states:

Standard 4: Teacher/Student Relationship
An educator should always maintain a professional relationship with all students, both in and outside the classroom.
Ethical conduct includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Fulfilling the roles of trusted confidante, mentor, and advocate for students’ growth.

• Nurturing the intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and civic potential of all students.

• Providing an environment that does not needlessly expose students to unnecessary embarrassment or disparagement.

• Creating, supporting, and maintaining a challenging learning environment for all students.

Unethical conduct includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Committing any act of child abuse, including physical or verbal abuse.

• Committing any act of cruelty to children or any act of child endangerment.

• Committing or soliciting any unlawful sexual act.

• Engaging in harassing behavior on the basis of race, gender, national origin, religion, or disability.

• Soliciting, encouraging, or consummating an inappropriate written, verbal, or

physical relationship with a student.

• Furnishing tobacco, alcohol, or illegal/unauthorized drugs to any student or

allowing a student to consume alcohol or illegal/unauthorized drugs.

If you read carefully you will notice the part about basis of race, gender, religion etc. I was in a local school for an observation for my elementary music class and I witnessed two white teachers verbally assaulting a young male student in the hallway outside of the class. Was this necessary? Did it really take two teachers to handle a discipline problem? There were also other students coming in and out of the classroom and moving up and down the hall. I looked at that young man and saw the humility in his eyes. It was demeaning and unethical to treat that student that way yet this is a common occurrence at our public schools.
We must strive to be ethical in everything we do as teachers. I also beleive that we should aslo hold each other accountable. I did nothing to stop those two teachers. As a student myself and a visitor in thier school maybe I did not have the right to interfer but maybe I should have looked towards the greater good and stepped in. Hopefully I will have enough courage to do so in the future. I beleive that we have to work together to work toward the future.

Twitter & Teaching

Twitter is one of the many new social networking sites that has become popular on the Internet in the last three to five years. I first heard of Twitter from watching the Fox News Channel. The news anchors were constantly talking about the comments they were receiving, live, from viewers. This seemed interesting to me but I still did not know what Twitter was. While in EDM 310, my Professor, Dr. Strange, began to talk about Twitter and it's possible uses in the field of education. Dr. Strange had us to create a Twitter account and start twittering. I watched the instructional video on the sites main page before creating my account. It was very informative video and creating a Twitter account was very simple. I have been using Twitter off and on for about three or four weeks now.

As far as Twitter being useful in the classroom setting I'm undecided. I can see where it would be useful for gathering information or sources for lesson plans. I can also see using Twitter for networking. I believe that it could be beneficial to students in opening up contacts across the country or even the world. A drawback of Twitter is that it simply seems to be repackaging Internet chat sites and other social sites. I can remember some of the first chat rooms on the Internet. Twitter is just a little better and with your picture. There are also other social sites like My Space and Face Book that serve pretty much the same function. I wonder if students could begin to get overwhelmed by all the social sites and perhaps not be able to focus on their school work. Besides, what site will replace Twitter in a few years? I do agree that the Internet is always dynamic and constantly changing. I also wonder how long total access will last. With the current legislation working it's way through congress the Internet my get regulated quickly and the free exchange of information may be limited. We'll just have to wait and see how Twitter will develope and impact our classrooms.

The Purpose of Education

What exactly is the purpose of education? This is a broad question I know but when put into the context of educating the minds of our children, we are able to narrow the question down and focus on what the purpose of education is for regarding our children. There is a difference between Schooling and Education as a Practice of Freedom. I will attempt to explain both of these.
First, what is wrong with Schooling? The thing that comes to mind immediately is the lack of equal curriculum. There is very little weight given to black, Hispanic, or Asian history in our curriculum. There are usually brief references to the railroad being built with Chinese laborers and maybe a chapter or two on slavery. What about the fact that there were many authors, artists, and musicians within the minority communities that contributed to the development of our nation. Instead, all students get a white world view of society through our education system and often times that history is in accurate. When creative classes are constanly at the bottom of our curriculum how can we pursue true education. Are we not all creative creatures? As teacher we must strive to free our children to learn and not just follow the motions.
Second, what is the true Purpose of Education? To quote the movie the Great Debaters: “keep the body strong, but steal the minds”. That was a reference to what black slave masters attempted to do with their slaves. Why steal the minds? Simply put, educated minds are free minds. Education serves as more than learning or teaching basic skills. Teachers are here to help students learn to be free thinkers and love knowledge and freedom. Another quote from the Great Debaters said by the debate teacher was that he was there to “help them to take back and use their righteous minds". To think of minds as being righteous is significant. When teachers begin to see this truth they begin to see all children as noble and human. The future is always in the hands of the educators and my hope is that true equality will arise as a phoenix and the light of justice will be carried by a new generation of educated, multicultural minded teachers that will not settle for the old institutional ways but will strive and achieve truly equal schools for children of all ages. Our purpose as teachers is to equip our people to charge into the future and accomplish the utmost for mankind. If we fail at that then we will always, as historians are so quick to state, repeat the mistakes of the past.

My First Professional Blog

As my first official professional blog, I will address my primary goal that I hope to achieve with these posts. Foremost I would like to have a forum of sorts to express my personal philosophies regarding teaching and social interaction/responsibility. As a future teacher, I have a standard to uphold that is quick to belittle or dismiss. Teachers play, in my opinion, the second most influencial role in childrens lives next to thier parents. It is because of this that I believe that no one should enter lightly into the teaching profession. Teachers are not just the keepers of knowleged but also of character and freedom. Education is freedom and education builds character. I am excited about the future and what things we will accomplish in our nation and for the world as a whole.