Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, says there are too few men working in schools as UK reflects on TV series Adolescence
The fate of boys “is a defining issue of our time”, according to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as she calls for more men to become teachers to combat “toxic” behaviours.
since 2010 the number of teachers in our schools has increased by 28,000 – but just 533 of those are men
Do you think this is an issue? Decades ago, boys would have been taught by male teachers, so today's female teachers are a change from the past.
Male teachers in primary schools have a whole set of problems unique to them, this is not a case of women being more willing to accept abuse or a lower status.
I would consider teaching, if it wasn't paid/worked like a passion job.
Overworked, underpaid, and any push-back inconveniences the kids, so you feel guilty.
Many of my friends (both men and women) that were teachers have changed careers over the past decade. The stress of the job is apparently vastly disproportionate to the compensation and many are pushed far past breaking point.
I think the problem is more that teachers are receiving a fraction of what they should if we want to keep the best ones in that field, and we don't have enough of them in general. These modern large class sizes to gloss over the staffing issues, are a big part of the problem IMO, it's a lot easier for kids to fall through the cracks in a bigger group before thinking about the teachers being overworked.
There being better male role models is the responsibility of all of us.
Teachers want to teach but what they're asked to achieve is impossible without working 60-70 hour weeks.
And when people talk about all the holiday they receive: all the teachers I know use that time to crash, become ill, recover, and then they're back to work.
Teachers basically raise the next generation, they have a huge impact on the subjects kids become interested in, education is one of the most important things in society.
Teachers should be paid more, and they should be able to have a 40 hour work week, not 60 hours like most do now, and they shouldn't have to be buying the equipment they need to do their jobs themselves.
Yes but at the same time the caliber of teachers has gone down. Jonathan Gullis was a teacher, I mean, I wouldn't want him alone in a room with my kids.
I just sent this to a friend who is one of the small proportion of male teachers in a primary school, turns out he just resigned because of the trust.
Thinking back many many years, I can't think of any male teachers in primary and an awful lot of the male teachers at my secondary school were either bastards, wankers or weirdos. There were some decent ones but I have no uplifting stories of them being inspirational (ex pupils of my Mum's say she definitely was), although I should have listened to Mr Benson about going to Oxford to do Geography. Asking teachers to be good role models to combat "toxic masculinity" seems like another example of what my Dad called "the elastic curriculum" - some politician would get it in there head that something nerds doing and punt it onto the schools as if they have all the time and resources in the world.
My key male role models growing up were my Dad and my ex-uncle Norm. If the good examples aren't set at home then the schools have no chance.
I had some good male teachers. The ones who weren't so good were easily angered and lashed out at the class. The ones who I much preferred knew how to lay down rules and get the respect of the class.
This is definitely part of a plan and not an opportunistic pony ride on the back of the TV show called Adolescence when has been on every front page and chat show for the last week.