Was Primary school a bit too feminine for boys?

[George 1978]

School assembly: while the Head was at the front, some familiar adults were at the end of our lines as we sat down, cross-legged on the cold and hard parquet floor for half an hour, while listening to the Head, and perhaps even sing a hymn as well with a female Liberace murdering Morning Has Broken on the upright piano - and the majority of familiar adults were female - Miss or Mrs X - a loco parentis "mother" from 8.45 am to 3.15 pm five days a week, 38 weeks a year. It did make me thing of how male domination is seen to women and girls, and realised that the boot (and not the high feels) could indeed be on the other foot. Why so much Girl Power in education, I wonder? More Staceys and Natalies than Johns and Davids?

Throughout my Infant and Junior School career, I had four Misses and only one Sir as my "boss", and it made me think that Years 1 to 6 of school in UK at least that school is "female" and as a male, I was the "other". It is an interesting transposition to French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in her 1949 book The Second Sex who had argued that in humanity in general the man is considered the default, while woman is considered the "other"; thus, humanity is male, and man defines woman not herself, but as relative to him. A school environment seemed to be transposed to this, probably because youngsters are probably used to more female attention than male. Primary school does seem feminine by virtue to the "gentle sex" who make up the core staff.

The was more than the case in Infant school, but at least at Junior school, I had a firm-bit-fair male Headteacher and Deputy Head. I did read on the BBC News website from 2006 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5074794.stm - that Primary schools (mostly inner-city ones) were often too feminine for boys, despite some establishments having completely male leadership. I for one, having a female teacher, felt as if she was biased towards the girls, especially in her manner of dress, speaking and direction, and one would have thought that had I been a girl, I would have had been treated more favourabily, but that would probably be because girls seemed to behave more sensibly than the boys did. One I would regard as a "schoolgirl in an adult's body" i.e. someone who would more likely to encourage those in her charge to be influenced by her and to leave school having similar attitudes. And it extends to the family: I grew up with two sisters rather than two brothers and so the minority gender extended to my family as well.

Infant school during the 1983-1984 academic year had every teaching staff member being female, and only one male member had joined in the second (1984-1985) year - I am not counting janitors and non-teaching staff here, and Junior school felt more balanced because of the gender of the Head and his Deputy, who remained the same throughout the four years I was there. I am almost certain that Joyce Grenfell's act didn't help much, for she seemed to contribute to the stereotype that nursery teachers were middle-aged to elderly, close to retirement, although my own scope seems to be the fact that they seemed to be a bit younger than that. Special Educational Needs teachers were almost likely to be female as well and so we have that situation there as well. It is like other "caring" professions: was it because females were more caring, hence nurses are most likely to be female?

And then I went to Comprehensive school many years later - during Year 9, the incumbent Headteacher retired and was replaced by a woman, and also one of the longstanding Deputy Heads was female as well, but that school felt more gender-balanced in hindsight. Perhaps Grange Hill's Bridget McClusky was one reason why female Headteachers in Comprehensive schools increased in the 1980s, or could it have anything to do with a female Prime Minister at the time? On her first day at my school, she mentioned in assembly and remarked that it is unusual for a woman to be in charge of a Secondary school, unlike its Primary counterparts - I assume that she didn't watch Grange Hill back then.

I suppose that when we grow up and develop from baby to toddler and then to child, we are a lot more used to feminine intuition: breastfeeding as a way of getting our milk so that we grow up to be strong and healthy - we seem to rely on women than men. When the child's father separates from the child's mother, it is Dad that makes himself scarce and Mum is left behind, having to bring the kids up on her own, literally left holding the baby, and we have the single mother stereotype, and her new partner is not likely to be the child's father by birth. Male role models are needed, not just in the family but also in school where one's peer group were like colleagues, i.e. a second family.

When boys did go to school back in the day, did they really feel that the system was a bit too feminine to meet their needs? - Did going to school each weekday feel like entering a sub-female environment? If the early years of school did have a gender, than "she" would almost definitely be female.

[Arran]

There is much truth to this...

Primary schools are very female dominted institutions. More acutely at KS1 than KS2.

I can't prove this, but I think many female primary school teachers favour girls over boys on the basis that they work harder and behave better even if their academic attainment isn't very high. The situation became less pronounced into the 1990s when primary schools were teaching science and ICT, and the academic prowess of children came to the forefront through OFSTED and SATS.

[Richard1978]

I managed to only have one male teacher during my time at primary school, but never really felt things were too feminised.

[George 1978]

I assume that anyone who had a male teacher at Primary level would have had him close to Year 6 rather than the Infant end - mine was in Year 5 aka the penultimate year of the Juniors. My Year 4 teacher (Second Year Juniors back in the day - she had the title of "Mrs") seemed so patronising and had the odd eccentric trait, and ironically for a school where pupils didn't have to wear uniform back then (although it was introduced many years later), she dressed conservatively as if she was wearing school uniform herself! Even the Trade Union the NASUWT was one set up specifically for women teachers, hence the "WT" in its acronym.

The gender specific staff situation is more levelled out by comprehensive school, but even Home Economics teachers in comprehensive schools are still mostly female, giving an illusion that only women do the cooking - why are the majority of chefs male then if that is the case? I have to cook myself as I don't have a female "assistant" living with me at the moment.

[Arran]

The gender specific staff situation is more levelled out by comprehensive school, but even Home Economics teachers in comprehensive schools are still mostly female, giving an illusion that only women do the cooking - why are the majority of chefs male then if that is the case? I have to cook myself as I don't have a female "assistant" living with me at the moment.

It will be interesting to see if the change to food and nutrition in secondary school will result in more men teaching this subject in the future. In theory, food and nutrition is a more attractive subject for a chef to teach than the old domestic science / home economics / food technology were.

There was a time when science in secondary school was a very male dominated subject. Some female biology teachers but female physics teachers were as rare as hen's teeth. The gender situation has somewhat balanced out but good KS4 level physics teachers (from both genders) are rare.

I have wondered if the introduction of science and ICT (later computer science) in primary schools attracted more men to become primary school teachers. Male primary school teachers are more likely to have a strong specialist subject than female primary school teachers are. That's probably another reason why they tend to teach KS2 more than KS1.

You almost never find men working in nursery and reception classes. There is however the issue of child protection and fears of paedophilia etc.

[George 1978]

You almost never find men working in nursery and reception classes. There is however the issue of child protection and fears of paedophilia etc.

Very true, and it's a pity as well because children grow up with a parent of each gender. On the other hand, women have also been accused of such things - in fact, women are most likely to be accused of that sort of thing which makes the news now and again.

[beccabear67]

I had male teachers for 4, 5 and 6. In the 5th the teacher was a WWII pilot who said he swam the channel if you added things up. He liked me because my Dad was from Holland and he'd been part of the liberation, even showed slides in class once of his trip to Holland the year before. He did sometimes throw chalk and brushes at the boys though. 6th grade teacher would be a bad influence now as we all knew he smoked.

Further on I had to get used to a male librarian as we'd had a female one from 1-7. Kids seemed to know by then (ages 13-up) which teachers were perverts or even gay. We lost one principal because he was caught involved with a former student in her late teens, I knew him better at a copying shop he went to be manager of, he later married the student. It might've started when she was still in his school though, I never really asked. I knew his daughter too. I had a severe crush on a young new male teacher myself too circa 8th-9th. He was nice to me, showed concern anyway, but of course nothing happened, but I can understand how sometimes it might and not be evil or any of that say a seventeen year old student and a twenty-two year old teacher. There was that story from the U.S. about a woman and young male and she went to prison but they got together when she got out and they married and I think might've had children. I did think she was a bit weird, but maybe he really was mature for his years (and she wasn't all that old either).

It's too bad things can't be on a person by person basis... have a family friend who is a real nice very gentle man, was a school custodian, and genuinely loves kids, came from a big family... it broke his heart a bit whenever there would be new orders from the top to be careful. Once after they were on a break he learned one little girl at the school had been killed in traffic and had to book off on leave for weeks it bothered him so. He'd worked at a school with much older students initially. Like my father he'd grown up in occupied Holland and saw a few awful things and maybe it brought something back.

I'd probably lay my life down for most any child without even thinking, I like to think most people are like that. The Big Brothers/Big Sisters program is important for pairing kids with an adult mentor, especially with so many single parent households now. I've participated in the past in some fund-raisers for the local and national program.

[Arran]

Very true, and it's a pity as well because children grow up with a parent of each gender. On the other hand, women have also been accused of such things - in fact, women are most likely to be accused of that sort of thing which makes the news now and again.

A high proportion of white British and black Caribbean children grow up in single parent households led by mothers. They often experience a lack of adult male figures in their lives until secondary school age. However, the majority of south Asian and black African children grow up in two parent households. Ironically, it's the latter two groups who have expressed most concern over the lack of male teachers in primary schools.