Overview:
Why have all the men left teaching? Listen to this male educator tell us why.
A stanza from the infamous anti-war poem ‘Boots’ by poet Rudyard Kipling is highly encouraged to be read in its entirety at a rate of two words per second, to match the sound of marching boots by the thousands of British infantrymen on their crusade in South Africa during the Second Boer War.
What teaching is like
In a stuffy classroom packed to the brim with what seems like an endless roster of middle school students- all from different walks of life- the economically disadvantaged, the one with an absent mother, absent father, the one with a penchant for vaping and the one who struggles with chronic absenteeism- and yet there’s more…
…the girl hiding from her own questioning identity- the one in the back with a hoodie hiding her cuts- the one who can’t read, or write, or spell, or tell time off an analog clock-
…and yet there’s more…
… what happened to students? What happened to childhood? How did it all turn into a giant indoor street corner? We tried it all. More money is spent per pupil. The new and advanced online do-it-yourself program so we could take a break so long as they take it seriously- it was supposed to boost the test scores, right? Just like the last program they promised.
More counselors. More aides in the room. Look! We even have a nurse!
And yet, it’s the same faces in different bodies. The same war, only it’s easier not to call it that. Boots marching internally to the same mechanical drum of the oversized classroom and the burnt-out teacher desperately googling their own personal last chopper out of ‘Nam before it all falls apart.
It’s an exodus a long time in the making, and our collective patient zero?
The plight of the male school teacher.
It’s been ten years running, and every year gets a bit easier and a bit harder all at the same time. I’ve become disillusioned. I thought it was about fostering the love of reading and, dare I say, being a parental role model to those who had none. After all, it’s a civic duty. A calling is how they sold me in recruitment. So I enlisted, with promises of 180 working days and a guaranteed negotiated salary and who can forget that awesome summer break?
Teaching is female now. According to The National Center for Education Statistics, about three-quarters (actually 77%, to be exact) are women. Is it a bad thing?
No…
…and yes.
This is not to make you feel comfortable. This is not for you to read and think- “Oh here he comes. Another one trying to edge us closer to The Handmaid’s Tale. What, you want us to be maternal but even working with kids is too much? You want me back in the kitchen that bad?”
This is coming from me, the one society has forgotten. The last of a dying breed with nothing promising on the horizon if you check our country’s pipeline. Nobody kicking down doors begging to be here, in this stuffy oversized classroom of boots.
I love them all, don’t you worry. After all, I couldn’t have lasted 10 years on my own without that fire. And yet… all around me, I can’t help but notice I might just be one of the few left rockin’ the Y chromosome clocking in and clocking out while all the others went mad with watchin’ em…. and there’s no discharge in the war.
What are male educators saying?
While all the men I knew took their chances in the private sector- some successful and doing just fine- and some melting their problems away night after night with a bottle and their favorite drinking hand (I personally prefer holding my bourbon in my left)- they all say the same thing: Edwards, I don’t know how you do it – or- listen I’ve been there and done that. It ain’t worth it.
Why?
The answer might be more surprising than you think.
It’s not the low pay, the horrible hours, the unruly students, the unruly parents, the incompetent administration, the bureaucracy, the grading, the whole Titanic.
It’s something else…
…they don’t want us in charge anymore.
They don’t want me commanding the room and dictating discipline as needed and in appropriate measure. Too discouraging to student morale, heaven forbid they’re held accountable.
They don’t want me speaking up in meetings. They don’t want me picking my own curriculum. What happened to male leadership? What happened to fathers at the parent meetings? What happened to books that inspired the boys? I’ll give you Lord of the Flies, The Outsiders, Dead Poets Society, and Fight Club. I dare you to name me three more. What happened to male authors? What happened to all our role models?
Gone and replaced. James Bond is no longer cool and leads with assertion. Indiana Jones is a weak pushover. Luke and Han are both deadbeats. All your idols are gone, and for the new breed, too.
And it shows.
They don’t participate. They don’t read, nor do they care if they’re illiterate. They can’t pay attention or sit still. They walk in hanging their heads from life’s woes depleting what should’ve been their childhoods. And no matter where they look, there’s no opportunity. No programs to advance young boys, no positive male role models in the classroom or in fiction.
No male teachers to toughen them up in ways only a man can give a boy…no old school male coach to yell in your ear because they see potential…no book or movie or story where the male takes charge and asserts himself… and lest you forget, there’s no male role model at home to push you away from that vape, or to put down the phone and pick up the pencil, or to just talk to that pretty girl and not just stare…
… it’s all gone, Edwards ol’ boy.
They don’t want us in charge anymore.
Lax discipline (if there’s any at all), inflated grades, strategy meeting after strategy meeting to introduce a new acronym to replace the old one. Artificial test scores and low achievement across the yard- but the boys?
Well…we all have the pleasure of knowing we failed them. The men who should’ve been there are all gone.
They all say the same thing: We left because we left; it’s as simple as that.
I don’t know how to fix this problem or even if I can. They all seem to love me as their teacher, and my administration tells me I’m doing a fantastic job. So why, then, do I feel so isolated? So lonely? Why do I feel like none of this matters anymore? Why do I see the same faces in different bodies year after year?
It’s terrible for the girls but even worse for the boys.
And I don’t know how much longer I can keep going.
Why are male teachers leaving?
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with female teachers, or administrators, or even a nation-wide female led body running the show. The problem is, at what point do we as a society look around and wonder why all the men left out of the lives of all our students? From the home to the classroom, it’s damn near across the board and only getting worse.
Did we go too far in pushing for what seems like a females-only club for STEM advancement, or application priority for acceptances, or female “diversity by design” novels (assuming reading is still a thing), or just about anything that appears, at least on the surface, to tell the boys to buzz off?
A generation of lost boys (no, not like the cool vampires) alienated from masculinity and embracing anyone who’ll give it to them (I don’t even have to name the men you’re thinking of now, do I?) What’s worse?
They’re here to stay and growing larger by the hour.
As more teachers like me contemplate leaving, those boots grow louder and more belligerent. That divide we see in everything from dating to politics, to economic achievement and stability grows wider.
It’s a big open secret that no one wants to address.
The men? We’re all gone. And as you’re reading this, you might be one of two people. The one who cheers or the one who shrugs. But maybe, just maybe, you might be the one who questions how all of this comes back in the end to hurt us all. We’ve kicked this can down the road for far too long, and now that can has grown, and there’s no more road.
Want to save education? Want to see the light come back on for all these kids?
I think it’s time we bring back masculinity to all students.
I have another prep to cover…and truthfully? I’m very tired…
Don’t- don’t- don’t-don’t- look at what’s in front of you.
Boots- boots-boots-boots- movin’ up and down again;
Men-men-men-men-men go mad with watchin’ em,
An there’s no discharge in the war!
Bio: Hello, my name is Kyle Edwards. Born and raised in Los Angeles, I’ve spent the first two years of my teaching career at a Title 1 Public School with a District and the last 7 years teaching Charter. I recently relocated to Las Vegas at my current charter, and I’m proud to have had the career I’ve gained over many trials and errors. I’m also a proud father and a devoted husband and I have many insights (even some unpopular ones) on the state of our educational system. Thank you for your time!
