What's the Difference Between a Man Teacher and a Woman Teacher?

On Harry's first day as a day care worker, a grinning preschooler came up to him, swinging his fists, and saying, "I'm gonna beat you up!" Harry grabbed the preschooler, pulled him into his lap, gave him a few playful punches in the tummy, and said, "Oh yeah? Sez who!"

A woman teacher said, "Nathan, that's not nice." Then, at the next teachers' meeting, the same woman teacher commented on how delighted she was to receive Harry in the teaching staff, and how valuable his presence would be in meeting the children's need for a good male image.

Without realizing it, this woman teacher was inconsistent. She didn't understand the natural differences between paternal love and maternal love which will inevitably come to surface in any caqregiving setting. Let's look at the differences between paternal love and maternal love:

Men are more tolerant toward gross motor activity on the part of children than are women..

Compared with women teachers, male teachers tend to ask for more free play. They also initiate athletic and practical activities, such as woodworking and bicycle repair, and even including activities which are traditionally feminine.

Compared with women teachers, male teachers also have a higher tolerance for noise. What others might call "noise and confusion" a man teacher might call "the hum of activity."

Men exert more gross motor activity with children than do women.

When I teach music to younger children, I ask individual children to sit on my shoulders while I do squats. Then I ask individual children to sit on my back while I do push-ups. All this time, the other children play and sing high notes and low notes while I go up and down - that is, those children who aren't consumed with giggles.

It's not just me. Fathers of infants and fathers of preschoolers have been found to be more playful than mothers. Male child care workers and teachers are more prone to roughhouse with children than are women child care workers and teachers.

What causes this gender difference? Nothing more than parental roles through millions of years of prehistory. Whereas a prehistoric woman's role is to nurture children, a prehistoric man's role is to toughen children up in case of a visit from enemies or predators. That is why we see this same gender difference all over the Primate Class.

There may have been men who didn't like to play-fight with children, but if there were, those men did not become our ancestors. Their children tended to get killed before they could pass their genes in our direction.

There may also have been children who didn't like to play-fight with men, but if there were, those children did not become our ancestors. Those children tended to get killed before they could pass their genes in our direction.

Men act more jovial with children than do women.

Women caregivers sometimes tell men caregivers, "If you're not serious all the time with the children, they won't take you seriously when you are serious."

Admittedly, there have been times when I have had to say, "A moment ago, I was your silly friend, but now I'm your teacher. Now do as I say."

However, the advantages of humor in education outweigh the disadvantages. In the Winter, 1992 issue of Childhood Education, D. Bergen pointed out that humor helps in "[conveying] the sense that learning can be fun," "holding the learner's interest," "creating a warm classroom climate," and "encouraging of creativity and imagination."

Men are closer to co-equal in relation to children than are women.

Compared with female teachers, male teachers are less likely to talk down to children, more likely to allow freedom of speech for children, and more likely to respond to ongoing activities as opposed to initiating activities.

In 1973, Lee & Wolinksy conducted a study in an elementary school classes which worked under both woman teachers and man teachers. They asked the class members, "Does _____ like you?" Children of both genders were more prone to answer yes in regard to the man teacher than in regard to the woman teacher.

Women are more nurturant to children than are men.

Don't let this get you too big-headed if you're a man teacher, though; in the same study, those children were asked, "Does _____ care about you?" In response to this question, the woman teacher usually won out.

That's because the mother played a nurturant role for millions of years. I'm not saying that there weren't any mothers who weren't nurturant, I'm only saying that there weren't very many mothers who weren't nurturant but had children who survived long enough to pass their genes down to us.

Men are less verbal with children than are women.

In 1972, Osofsky & O'Connell found that mothers of children were more inclined to give verbal instructions for tasks, while fathers were more inclined to physically help. Is the father setting a good model? Or is the mother asserting the child's responsibility? Twist to your own convenience.

Men are more conscious of gender differences than are women.

A woman wrote to advice columnist because her husband wouldn't kiss their son. He kept saying, "I don't feel right kissing another male." The wife thought her husband might be crazy for seeing their son as a stag friend rather than as a child.

She had no reason for alarm, though. Whereas women tend to see children, men tend to see boys and girls. Here are some relevant research findings:

fathers are more anxious over girl babies' well-being than over that of boy babies.

fathers interact more positively with preschool daughters than with preschool sons

fathers interact more with elementary age sons than with elementary age daughters

fathers are more affectionate toward girls than toward boys

fathers are more permissive toward girls than toward boys

fathers are more negative toward girls' tomboyish behavior than are mothers

fathers are more negative toward boys' feminine behavior than are mothers

Are these traits only culture-deep? I don't think so. Biologists have found that adult males throughout the Primate Order are more sex-discriminatory toward juveniles.

Women have an advantage in juggling simultaneous events and simultaneous thoughts in the classroom.

The corpus callosum is the part of the brain which joins the two hemispheres. It is in the evolutionary interests for women to have a strong corpus callosum so that they could juggle their many caregiving responsibilities. It is in the evolutionary interests for men to have a weak corpus callosum so that they could concentrate on killing enemies and predators and forget about the suffering which they were causing.

And that's exactly what we see today: strong corpus callosa in women and weak corpus callosa in men. I sometimes have trouble remembering children whom I've sent to the time-out corner. I also sometimes have trouble watching the class while managing a reading group. This may be because of my gender.

But suppose we are presented with a misbehaving child pleas for mercy, but is really more in need of justice than mercy? Who has the advantage now? The man teacher!

The difference between men and women is obvious not only to researchers, but to children. Father-present children of both genders score higher on school achievement than do father-absent children. Father-absent children are more likely to offend in terms of sibling abuse or heroin use. In 1972, Hetherington found that father-absent girls are more likely to suffer from anxiety than are father-present girls. In 1968, Stoller found that father-absent boys are less assertive and more dependent than are father-present boys.

It's time for a men's liberation movement - but not one with a unisex theme.

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