modeling in the classroom

men MIA

Consequences often require decades to become fully apparent. A story in today’s Wall Street Journal strikes me as a warning of dangers ahead in our society but I doubt we will embrace the changes required to prevent fairly adverse outcomes. I want to advocate today for trying to address a gap in education, probably one that you hadn’t considered recently.

All of us hue to people akin to ourselves, whether by religion, skin tone, hair color, or language. Sure, we are often drawn to those with pizazz or those who appear opposites of our selves; but in the end we draw nearer to people with shared experiences, opportunities, and values. I don’t find this surprising nor earth shattering. This is why we increasingly see people self-segregate into like-minded friendships, residential areas, affiliations, and even supporting football teams (I cannot believe two of my teams are still in the playoffs. Such a luxury so often denied).

We learn, respect, and seek out those to whom we can relate best.

This matters too in education where the Journal notes how few men are going into pre-college teaching. The focus of the article is the thirty thousand dollar average gap between pay for men in the private sector and those in schools for men of the same age and college experience. That is about a 30% difference, according to the story, between what a college-educated man in an undefined field earns versus those college-credentialed men in teaching. Why on earth would a man go into teaching, one likely will ask?

For the record, the gap between college-educated women and teachers is merely $12,000 but, of course, women consistently receive less pay for the same jobs.

And we overwhelmingly do entrust our children to someone else to educate for twelve years. As a professional educator, I never considered home schooling because education serves learning and socializing outcomes. I appreciate that others of you make difference choices, which is your prerogative, but these learning and socializing outcomes have long term implications for our country.

The import of the story on male teachers is more significant than pay. In an era of declining educational achievement in pre-college education (which then, of course, bleeds into advanced education—particularly in math and science—in the United States), this is a red flag. All of this has arisen yet again after the Pandemic when achievement scores fell dramatically. We must figure out some new approaches to improving our students’ thinking and basic skills—or fall irreparably behind other countries where education still seems to ticket out of poverty for individuals and out of any country’s backwards state. Most of the rest of the world cherishes, craves educational opportunities even if they are neither mandatory nor equal for all.

But we are seeing U.S. students, particularly young males, see less value in education. Is there some relationship between the number of male teachers they see in front of them and their diminishing interest? Sure, I am asking a hypothetical and I do not, repeat not, have empirical data one way or the other.

But we do know that young men, according to achievement scores (an admittedly less-than-perfect measure but better than nothing), are falling behind in learning, especially math and science which bedevil our youth. I can only assume they are also falling behind in reasoning. I have virtually given up on civic literacy in our schools as long-time readers know; geography went the way of the dinosaurs when I was in school.

Yet this is all happening in an era when our national obsession with higher tech, AI, innovation, engineering, and associated fields dependent on reading, math, and reasoning skills. How is that going to work, folks?

I don’t believe we will solve all of these problems by merely having both male and female teachers in schools as the roots of the challenge and complexity of the problems are profound and multi-variable. I completely and unequivocally accept that, recognizing things started going awry years ago for probably known and unknown reasons.

But I do suspect, as the Journal’s reporting on the paucity of male teachers—especially as role models for young men, is something we could address. We could encourage raise the stature of educated male role models—drum roll— as both cool and awesome. That could have consequences vital for the kids and for our society over the long term.

I am not advocating that we force men into teaching but we can celebrate the significance of welcoming them as K-12 educators. Of course I am not talking about putting people of any gender into the classroom purely based on gender. I am suggesting we recognize the celebrate teaching, education, and the role as well as satisfaction that career field brings to improving education as well as society. Could we make education desirable again by incentivizing the outcomes of working with kids still at a formative stage in life?

Education, of course, is a state and local responsibility in our federal system so pay, credentialing, recruiting, and the like fall to local officials. But we are kidding ourselves if we don’t think the constant barrage of complaints about teachers doesn’t dissuade wonderful men (and women) from embracing the field as early as in college. The article I cite here also illustrates the financial downside of choosing to pursue teaching credentials, apparently especially for men, so we need address that as well. No one wants to pay higher taxes but do we want a society unable to read, unable to engage with others in a civil, nonviolent manner (one of the things school actually brings, despite being far from a perfect system)?

Many of you will dismiss my concerns as “not my job, man” kind of pie in the sky arguments. But, the increased incidence of particularly young men disillusioned and divorced from the societal norms is all of our concerns.

A friend living outside of Philadelphia chose to become a teacher in her forties after her own kids got into school. Before having children, she was a regional HR manager of a huge department store chain, a position I believe she enjoyed. Yet talking with her after she went back to school to get the credits to become a teacher obviously satisfied her to no end. While retired from formal teaching, she still thrives on tutoring local students because the process of seeing a young person validate his or her growth in learning is a most powerful valedictory in life.

Yes, Cynthia: another woman. Right but why is it gender specific when she sought to contribute to her Chester County community in a truly meaningful way?

Teaching is hard work, regardless the level, but it can also be as rewarding as any other career field. And that satisfaction can be immediate and long term yet we so often seem to think it’s not that big a deal who transmits or how energized they are in helping our most valuable of all commodities, our children.

Perhaps the Journal article is an aberration about male teachers, role models, and associated decisions in pre-college education but I strongly doubt it. In an era of youth of both genders needing role models, I cannot see how incentivizing men to teaching is anything other than a worthy experiment. If it doesn’t work over a decade or some reasonable time, we can abandon the effort. But things are not working now so we better come up with some revisions to the status quo besides simply kvetching because this fundamental decline in our society is allowing others to eat our lunch.

I welcome your rebuttals, queries, suggestions, or any other thoughts. I appreciate that you likely have far better ideas so let’s get them out here because actions are creating consequences. If you find this valuable, please feel free to circulate it. Thank you for your time. I also appreciate the financial support that paid subscribers provide to this effort.

Be well and be safe. FIN

Zara Abrams, “Boys are facing key challenges in school. Inside the efforts to support their success”, AmericanPsychologicalAssociation, 54:3 (1 April 2023), retrieved at https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/04/boys-school-challenges-recommendations

Kimberly Amedeo, “U.S. Educational Rankings Compared with Other Countries”, TheBalancemoney.com, 10 July 2024, retrieved at https://www.thebalancemoney.com/the-u-s-is-losing-its-competitive-advantage-3306225

Matt Barnum and Paul Overberg, “A ‘Pay Penalty’ is Keeping Men out of Classrooms”, WallStreetJournal.com 24 January 2025, retrieved at https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/education-low-pay-male-teachers-8c3bfa30?mod=hp_featst_pos4

“U.S. Education System Lags Behind Other Countries”, PBS.org, August 2023, retrieved at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/daily-videos/2023/08/u-s-education-system-lags-behind-other-countries