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If you have a question, e-mail us and, if appropriate, we'll
add your question to the website.
Here is a list of common questions. More thorough answers can be found
in the book Men In Child
Care & Elementary Education: A handbook for Administrators and
Educators,edited by Bryan G. Nelson and Bruce Sheppard.
You can purchase this book on this website by going here. These questions and answers have been
organized into three groups: Men entering the field; Men who want to
remain in the field; and, Directors of programs who want to hire men or
keep the men they have.
Men becoming teachers or working with children
Q: How do I start?
A: Contact a man who is currently working with young children and use
him as a resource for beginning. Start out by serving as a substitute
or volunteer in an early childhood program - they are usually very
eager to find good subs and volunteers. Talk to the early childhood
department at a technical school or university. Contact your local AEYC
affiliate for advice.
Q: What is it like being a man in early childhood?
A: Men can serve in any capacity in early childhood education that
women do. You can be a family day care provider, child care center
teacher or director, Head Start teacher or driver, public school
special education teacher or family educator, college or technical
school instructor, university lab school teacher, and this list just
begins to scratch the surface of possibilities.
Q: Who can I talk to to find out about it?
A: A good place to start is to contact your local
affiliate office or local college's early childhood department for
names of men willing to talk to other men about working in early
childhood programs. If all else fails contact the authors of this
handbook and we can provide you with at least one man in your area to
talk to.
Q: What kind of training and experience do I need to
get started?
A: Basically you can get started without any training or
experience. Most child care centers will give any man a try at being a
sub if your references and background checks out. Once you sub for
awhile part or full-time employment is often offered sooner or later.
Child care teachers need varying levels of education and/or experience
depending upon state rules. Higher paying jobs connected to public
schools require bachelor's degrees in early childhood or elementary
education and some require additional coursework such as in the case of
an Early Childhood Special Education teacher. College instructors
usually require at least a Master's degree and usually a Doctor's
degree.
Q: How can I earn enough money to support myself let
alone a family?
A: There are no easy answers to this question. Child care salaries
are still pitifully low. If you want to stay in child care as a teacher
you have to give up the idea of making a good living. (There are
exceptions to this like the Massachusetts subsidy plan.) Otherwise you
have to eventually consider higher paying options like being a
director, working for the public schools, or teaching at a college.
Another alternative is extra work like working evenings as a child care
worker for evening programs or giving after hours workshops. This
involves working more than a regular work week and can quickly lead to
burnout.
Q: What age group of young children do men work best
with?
A: Despite some misconceptions that men can only relate well with
preschoolers or school-age children, men can also work well with
infants and toddlers. Don't settle with an age group that does not seem
right to you until you have tried a different age group.
Q: At what age or stage in one's career is it best to
get in the field?
A: There is no magical age here. It used to be that alot of men
stumbled into early childhood work in their 20's or 30's after starting
a different career and hating it. Now we see more adolescent men in the
early childhood courses at technical schools and colleges. We are also
seeing men in their 40's and 50's dropping an unsatisfactory career and
getting in the field. And we are also seeing some retiring early or at
regular times and beginning a new career in child care. If it feels
like the right thing to do, then it is the right time for you.
Q: What are the benefits of working with young
children?
A: As stated before, talk to a man in the field and he will tell
you how great it is and how tough it is. Tangible benefits are small.
Pay is low and benefits are skimpy but if you find you love this work
you will enjoy good physical and mental health. And the intangibles are
too numerous to list here. Suffice to say that the involvement in the
growth, the joys, the energy, the love of young children is a reward
that has no price tag.
Men who want to remain in the field
Q: How can I earn more money?
A: Unionizing often raises salaries and benefits. You can seek
outside work in early childhood like giving workshops, teaching
classes, or doing respite care. You can move up to higher paying jobs
like being a director or working for the public schools.
Q: Where can I get support from other men in the
field?
A: Some parts of the country have organizations and/or events for
men in early childhood programs. Contact your local AEYC affiliate or
the authors of this handbook for more information. Seek out workshops
at conferences that deal with issues about men and talk to the men
there. Organize your own group if needed.
Q: How many other men are out there?
A: Nobody knows for sure but the best estimates are that two to
three percent of all people working in early childhood programs are
men. What that means in actual numbers is anybody's guess. In Minnesota
we have a mailing list of 200 men in the state and we know that it
isn't comprehensive.
Q: What do I do when discriminated against on the
basis of being a male?
A: Usually a reasonable approach to a director and fellow staff
will clear up any unfair rules, policies, or attitudes. It won't be
easy. But, sexism needs to be interrupted. It's important to pick which
issues you need to challenge. If you consider it serious enough, put it
in writing so that you have documentation. Also, if necessary, you
should contact your local human rights department with the city or
state. Otherwise, contact your licensing agency if you feel that is
necessary or take other legal action.
Q: How do I handle accusations of abuse?
A: When in doubt always get advice from an attorney with expertise
in defending against child abuse accusations. Don't let an
inexperienced attorney practice with you as a client. See the chapter
in this handbook on this subject.
Q: How do I organize events and gatherings for men in
early childhood programs?
A: A good place to start is to run a workshop or seminar at a local
conference. If you get some men there plan a next event with those men
and get it into local newsletters. Camping trips are easy, inexpensive,
well-attended, and rewarding. Retreats can be held at church or other
camps at a reasonable, break-even cost. Once you get a mailing list
together from a workshop or seminar and begin, it is amazing how many
other men find out about what you are doing. Start small. You don't
have to get every man in your area to be effective.
Q: How can I help get other men into this profession?
A: Organizing retreats, camping trips, etc. goes a long way in this
matter. Let local affiliates and colleges that prospective men can
contact you for advice.
Q: How do I deal with burnout?
A: Again, organizing or taking part in some event for men in early
childhood programs usually helps alot. Walk away for awhile. There will
always be plenty of jobs for men available when you are ready to
return. Try something different in the field. Move to a higher paying
job. Take some classes to get a different job.
Q: How do I deal with pressure from friends and
family to get out of the field?
A: If you stay in long enough family members usually begin to leave
you alone. The same holds true for some friends. Often you find that
sooner or later those friends that annoy you about leaving the field
end up becoming former friends if they annoy you long enough. If their
questions bother you enough to have continuing doubts, maybe you should
take a close look at what you are doing.
Directors of programs who want to hire men or keep the men
they have
Q: Where do I find qualified men?
A: Advertise at places where men can be found like at colleges,
men's organizations, newsletters for men etc. Write newspaper ads that
let men know that they are welcome to apply.
Q: How can I support their being hired?
A: Count the fact that a candidate is a man as an asset just like
if he had a special talent or is a person of color. Communicate the
positives about hiring a man to your hiring committee, parents,
community, and staff.
Q: What will my parents, staff, and community say if
I hire a man?
A: You need to be unapologetic and pro-active in communicating to
everyone that hiring a man is a positive move for your program.
Communicate the positives to new parents and staff and make it a fact
that men are involved with your program.
Q: Won't I have to change our policies and procedures
if I hire a man?
A: If you discover that you have to change your policies and
procedures if a man is hired, there are two major issues. One is that
you may be setting yourself up for a discrimination suit if you make
separate rules for men in your program. The other issue is that you may
discover that there are many policy areas that need to be changed to
protect or involve both men and women in an equal and positive way such
as rules about no staff members being alone with children.
Q: Why would a man want to work for such low pay?
A: Motives that men bring with them into your workplace are varied
and overwhelmingly positive. Often they are men who have tried the
"rat-race" and have decided that they want to have a much more healthy
life and positive effect on children and society.
Q: How can I support men in my program once they are
hired?
A: Be positive in your communication to your parents, staff, and
community about men. Men are usually working in isolation from other
men and they may need extra direct support from their supervisors to
feel they are doing a good job. A kind word can go a long way. When you
come across a workshop, retreat, or other event for men in early
childhood programs, do all that you can (even monetarily) to encourage
your man or men to get involved.
Q: Once I start hiring men, do I have to have a staff
that is 50% men? Will they take over?
A: The highest estimate of the percentage of men in early childhood
programs is four percent. With the low pay, societal taboos, and
cultural bias that we have to deal with it is highly unlikely that men
will ever take over the early childhood profession let alone a local
center. You do up your odds that a man will stay awhile if you have
more than one man on staff.
Q: What kind of men want to work with young children?
Aren't alot of them potential child abusers?
A: Stories in the media about men abusing children in child care
centers make good copy but is realistically insignificant. In fact,
since you are more likely to have an overwhelming majority of women on
your staff, you are much more likely to have to deal with a female
staff member abusing a child than your male staff.
Q: Because of the low pay, won't men in early
childhood program stay only a short time? Wouldn't it be easier to just
not bother hiring a man in the first place?
A: Men leave programs or the profession for the same reasons women
do: low pay, low status, stress, etc. The extra effort it takes to hire
and keep a man is usually outweighed by the positive effect having a
man around has on the children, parents, and other staff.
Q: What should I say to men? I never know what to say?
A: It's probably easier to tell you what not to say. Don't say,
"You're so special." or "It so nice to have a man around. You're not
like all those other men." By saying these things you are somehow
separating us from other men. We really aren't that different from
other men. We have just developed an aspect of ourselves that any human
could develop, given the right environment and support. And by the way,
please don't assume we know how to fix the copy machine or like to lift
all the heavy things in the building.
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