Male teachers more rare in Catholic elementary classes

Less than 8 percent of Arkansas' parochial teachers pre-K to eighth grade are men

Published: November 11, 2013

by Dwain Hebda
Associate Editor

Dwain Hebda

Travis Patton reads to a classroom of 3-year-olds at Our Lady of Fatima Church’s preschool in Benton. Less than 2 percent of preschool and kindergarten teachers nationwide are men, making Patton a rarity.

Dwain Hebda

Proportions low but steady

Over the past 10 years the proportion of male elementary and middle school teachers in Catholic schools in Arkansas has hovered in the range of 6.4 percent to 7.9 percent, far below the Arkansas and national averages. According to the National Catholic Education Association, nationally Catholic elementary schools employed 12 percent male teachers in 2012-2013.

2004: 35 men, 6.4 percent

2005: 42 men, 7.9 percent

2006: 36 men, 7.5 percent

2007: 34 men, 6.9 percent

2008: 35 men, 7.1 percent

2009: 38 men, 7.7 percent

2010: 39 men, 7.4 percent

2011: 41 men, 7.8 percent

2012: 37 men, 7.5 percent

2013: 38 men, 7.7 percent

Elementary classrooms are lacking male teachers and nowhere is that more pronounced than in Arkansas’ Catholic schools. Over the past decade, the percentage of lay male teachers in the diocese never exceeded 7.9 percent and hit a low of 6.4 percent.

The situation is the extreme example of what is a national shortage of male teachers, particularly among primary grades. According to National Education Association statistics, less than 25 percent of all elementary and middle school teachers in 2006 were men; by 2011, the number had dropped to 18.3 percent, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor.

The National Catholic Education Association reported in 2012 percentage of men in the classroom roughly 5 percent lower than the national average.

Pay and image barriers

Overall, Arkansas has ranked at or near the bottom with just over 16 percent male teachers in 2008 and Catholic schools are doing nothing to reverse that trend. With the 2013-2014 seeing a relatively high percentage of male teachers at 7.7 percent, roughly one-third of the diocese’s 25 elementary and junior high schools don’t have at least one male on faculty and only 10 schools had more than one.

While experts attribute the problem to low pay and lack of mentors, Marcia Brucks, principal at Immaculate Conception School in North Little Rock, said image problems keep many male educators out of the primary school ranks.

“I think it’s a societal thing,” she said. “Teaching elementary school isn’t considered a ‘manly’ profession. In high school, you can get into coaching. In fact if we paid coaches in middle school, we’d probably see more men teaching at that level. But as it is, it’s not considered cool.”

Teaching as a vocation

John Taylor, who’s taught 18 years of fourth-, fifth and sixth-graders at Sacred Heart School in Morrilton, can relate. He started out to be a high school teacher, changing his major after a college counselor told him the job market would be better if he did. While it proved sage advice, economic factors haven’t made it easy to be in this field.

“When it comes to men and their careers, money and economics is a big factor,” he said. “It’s a sacrifice to be an educator, even in the public school system. Me, I consider myself a missionary. I really look at myself as spreading the faith and delivering a good Catholic education, meaning incorporating the faith into everything I do. But we’ve still had to make sacrifices for me to do what I love to do.”

Brucks, whose four male staffers place her school in the upper echelon of gender diversity in the diocese, said she didn’t actively recruit men when female teachers left. It was more a matter of right place-right time, she said.

Environment a plus

Zach Edwards of Trinity Junior High School in Fort Smith is quick to point out that like many of his male peers at the University of Arkansas, he didn’t plan on teaching at the elementary level, but the Trinity job was the only position available.

“In my profession, men are actually in the majority, except at the elementary level,” said Edwards, 29, in his fifth year.

However, once men dip their toe into a parochial system, the environment, the relative lack of disciplinary problems and the ability to spread one’s faith are appealing. They also find reaching kids at an age when they are still excited about learning is rewarding.

“Elementary music is primarily geared toward vocal range, so when you start talking about instrumental music you’re usually starting from scratch,” he said. “I enjoy bringing out the creative side of seventh-graders and building them through ninth grade. It’s rewarding to see them develop over several years.”

Patton breaks the mold

Perhaps no male teacher in the state experiences the joy of discovery more fully than Travis Patton, now in his third year in charge of Our Lady of Fatima Church’s preschool in Benton. As less than 2 percent of preschool and kindergarten educators are men, Patton is the rarest of the rare.

“There was an adjustment period at first,” he said of parents’ reaction. “I’m in the minority in this job for sure. But it didn’t take long.”

Most parents now say they feel safer knowing there’s a male is in the building. Disciplinary issues are few and his previous role in the parish’s youth ministry makes him an evangelizer of sorts for Catholic education.

Moreover, he experiences what educational experts cite as the biggest reason for men in the classroom, even at his students’ tender ages of 12 months to 4 years.

“The students who respond to me best are the ones who don’t have a male role model at home,” he said.

Role models valuable

On that point, studies are mixed as to the educational payoff of boys learning from male teachers. However, the social aspect of having a consistent, positive male role model is something most agree is a valuable asset in developing boys’ self-confidence, ability to accept responsibility and overall emotional and social development. What’s more, this isn’t a new concept — researchers have reached this conclusion in studies dating back at least to the early 1970s.

“There are benefits in middle school especially, in being able to have those conversations with boys,” said Mark Wilhelm, assistant principal and former fifth- sixth- and seventh-grade reading teacher at St. Joseph School in Fayetteville. “I’ve had two conversations just recently about what it means to be a man because, due to their situations at home, they don’t hear that.

“It’s not the norm, but there are students who have very different ideas of what manhood means and they need someone to demonstrate how to treat females, how to carry yourself, what’s appropriate and what’s not. At this age, they try to be so macho. It’s often the biggest show-off who needs to hear it.”