After a bit of an absence from blogging it is time I got some ideas down on paper and I thought an easy start would be my experience as a male in education. In such a female dominated field that it is sometimes easy to forget the role inherent gender differences can play in a workplace.
For the first time in my teaching career I find myself the only male on staff. I have always known us blokes are outnumbered but today being the only guy at school.... well, it felt lonely. I still had the awesome colleagues I worked with last year around me, many of them that I am great friends with. But being the only guy is tough.
We work, think and relax in different ways. It's not about having someone to talk about the rugby with but it's the unspoken male language, the jokes, the non verbal cues that we naturally just use. It is different to our female counterparts and sorry ladies, it can’t be imitated.
This brings me to our boys... some of whom have no male role models at home. These boys thrive on physicality which stems from the ingrained desire to test yourself against your environment and each other. Boys hit, push and punch, often out of frustration and sometimes just because they get that rush of blood to the brain and it seems like a good thing to do.
Male teachers will often do things and say things that females can't or won't, just like you are less likely to see a male teacher hug students. Male teachers develop their teacher-student relationships with more distance and usually bridge this gap with humour.
A male teacher can tell kids to harden up... but usually only after the relationship has been built with that student. For an outsider it can appear harsh, but look at the student... was it spiteful or can you see the jest in the remark? I remember a running joke I had with one student who loved to come up and tell me about the smallest problem they were having. I would pull out my phone and ask her "do you want to call someone who cares?". This was never mean or nasty and would never have happened if the student was dealing with a big problem. It was banter... the kind that for whatever reason makes more sense coming from a guy. More importantly was the effectiveness of this banter at building the relationship and the personal growth of the student. She became a wonderful kind and caring student, someone who stopped letting the little things get to her.
It's never that we don't care... it is because are different. Nine times out of ten our students can see it, and they love it. So please think about it the next time you judge a male teacher. Yes we aren't like you, but is that a bad thing? It would be a boring world if we were all the same.
