I read an interesting article in our local newspaper, the Bismarck Tribune, about how a push is on to bring more black men into the teaching profession. MISTER is both an acronym-Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models – and a reference to the 1967 film “In the Heat of the Night,” in which Sidney Poitier’s character demands respect according to Kathy Matheson an Associated Press Writer.
The MISTER teaching program encourages young black males to enter the classroom in exchange the program will cover tuition cost with scholarships. According to Roy Jones, the national executive director, “If we can recruit linebackers, point guards, and track stars, we can recruit third-grade teachers”.
He makes an interesting point but those black males enrolled in MISTER will not bring the alumni and sport fans to the games, which in turn pay for huge projects and salaries on university campuses. That is major problem for MISTER. The average salary according to MenTeach is $51,000 a year in the U.S. (this is not the case in ND). The average sports figure makes millions, which program attracts the most attention? You know which one does.
Currently, only 2 percent of teachers are African-American and with gang violence and low test scores the black community needs role models that are black. One black male student commented, “A lot of males, they don’t like school because they can’t relate to their teacher”. Do you think this is the case? Do have trouble relating to some students? To bump the number to 3 percent of the national average 45,000 black males would have begin the MINSTER program.
Now I am not a black man, I am a very white man in some case a reddish pink man in the summer time, but that does not take away from the fact that I believe more black men are needed in the school system at all levels. According to Matheson, “87 percent of teachers are white, with 77 percent being female,” and this trend will continue unless teaching is looked at as a successful profession by all minority races.
At my school of education in Omaha we had 2 minority males in my graduating class of let’s say 200. That tells me that organizations like MISTER have a long way to go. They are currently in 28 colleges and seven states. The issue isn’t if black men can teach, we know they can, but are the unions and universities really making a strong push to get them into the profession? This could be a question about any minority group in your area. Maybe they are and I don’t see it, please let me know.
My final question is what could we do as teachers to encourage our minority friends and students that teaching is a good career choice?
Why restructure? Does it really do anything?
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Hi Kyren, I liked your blog because my best friend is black and currently works in a high school and I personally feel he is so influencial on his students. His position is a cultural liason and his purpose is to influence students of different cultrues that are heading down a tough path or need encouragment. He works very close with his students and from what I have seen they view him as a role model not just another teacher. He is also one of the football coaches and that has helped encourage students to perform well in school to be apart of the team and he has convinced a few students to join the team instead of running around (most likely getting into trouble).
ReplyDeleteI may have a bias opinion but I think it is so important to encorage men and especially men of other cultures to become educators. They can be so influential to the students who are not influenced by the typical teacher. I think this is so important for areas that have a diverse population. Students need to see that black men can be successful and contining education is an option and that can best be seen by example.
As teachers I think we can do our best to encourage males (all cultures) to be an educator. I had my best friend's brother come to my classroom for a day and he was so great with the kids and I told him that. I told him that he can offer students so much and guess what...he is majoring in elementary ed!! I think my students thought it was so cool that a black college football player was listening to them read and wanted them to learn.
That is very cool. I am glad your friend is joining a great profession. I think young men of all cultures need role models, as do girls, and to most of them the teacher is the closest thing they see.
ReplyDeleteKyren,
ReplyDeleteMy view on this issue is that a school's staff should be representative of the student body. You use the example of black students feeling like they cannot relate to their teachers and the administration in their schools and I think that a culturally representative staff would cure that problem. In the NFL there is a rule that was recently implemented called the Rooney Rule. It states that because such a large percentage of NFL players are minorities that at least one minority candidate must be interviewed for head coaching and general manager positions. I think this is a great idea and it has been successful since its implementation. In the case of adding black teachers to schools and getting them to think about teaching while in college, there needs to be an incentive for them to want to enter the teaching field and I believe that the MISTER program is an awesome step forward in this regard. Students absolutely need to be able to relate to their teachers and it is not always a racial or cultural conflict that causes a disconnect, but I would say that most of the time it is. We have a lot of Native American students and I believe they have a hard time relating to me because they think I am a "white boy" (they don't know that I am part Blackfeet Indian). This disconnect sometimes is too much for a student to overcome and they shut down.
To answer your final two questions, I have to say that in my experience colleges are absolutely not doing a good job of attracting minority students into their respective education programs. At Montana State University it was a rarity to see anyone other than a white female in the education building!! As for the last question, I think that we should not try to force students or friends to think that teaching is a great way to make a living. All we can tell them is about our experiences and what we do on a daily basis. It is up to them to make the decision, but programs such as MISTER may make it easier for them =D
cheers,
ct
Kyren,
ReplyDeleteYou raise a very interesting topic. I have always thought that more men in general need to be in the education field but where I live there are very few men. In fact, the only male on the staff at my school is a part-time P.E. teacher and he is about to retire.
It is my belief that teaching is still considered for women, thus not allowing the salary to be very high in most districts. Secondly, it is often referred as a "wimpy" profession. Well, we all know that teaching is anything but wimpy, right? It's very hard work.
I think that if more men, particularly black men, would enter the field of education many things would change. For example, if more black men were teachers in the inner-cities, maybe the gang activity would lessen because there would be role models. However, we first need some brave men to take up that challenge. As much as I would like to think and believe that race doesn't play apart in becoming effective role models, I do believe it is still a huge factor.
I once heard or read that boys who drop out of high school decide by the time they are in sixth grade. I imagine that if we had more male teachers in the lower grades that number would dramatically decrease. Or at least I hope it would.
It is my hope and prayer that one day society will view the education field as just important if not more important than the financial field. Teachers have a major impact on ALL people no matter what field them enter as adults.
Well, I couldn't find the article to which you refer, but my first thought on the topic is a question. Why do we need to be concerned about who is teaching our children if they are willing and able? When black males said they cannot relate to a little white woman? Isn't that a perfect example of reverse discrimination, but made to sound nice by promoting more black male teachers to take over? Anyone who is qualified and interested in teaching in any district should be given the opportunity to do so and is the best "black man" for the job even if they are 77% white females. I do agree that it would be more difficult for a white female to "fit in" at a minority dominated school. Isn't that up to the district and the white person, however? Is school a popularity contest for kids, but also adults? Maybe it's the challenge they'd like to tackle, or their own Berlin wall they'd like to break down. Everyone teaches for their own reasons. Do we really need to award jobs based upon color, sex, and socioeconomic background to make someone, such as the black male and his quoted opinion, feel better about himself? It seems like I'd be offended if I was a white female teacher and my black male student simply said I don't like school because of two things... you're WHITE and your a FEMALE.
ReplyDeleteWhen my students feel a connection to me from year-to-year on a deeper level, I see them performing much more challenging tasks daily and striving to do well. They really don't want to let me down. Who doesn't want to work for someone you like as opposed to someone you don't? I would be called racist or sexist if I argued with anyone about my student production being related to my color or sex. Why is it not an issue all of a sudden if talked about from the minority perspective? If color, sex, and socioeconomic background are illegal for employers to evaluate, why is it something we've got to consider all of a sudden?
Blacks make up 80 percent of the NBA and 70 percent of the NFL teams. It seems to me that these people would be the ones to help promote teaching more. They could have commercials recalling their favorite teachers as they grew up. They should promote it where the real minority success stories seem to lie in the media. If parents or teachers who are 77% white female aren't encouraging minorities to become teachers, they ought to step down from their positions and let the new and exciting minority teachers to move in, right?
But seriously, it's all about priorities. Different races, religions, sex, and socioeconomic backgrounds really direct our priorities. If a black man's priorities are not to teach, who's supposed to steer him away from his priorities? If a white female wants to teach, who's going to discourage her not to follow her dreams? Groups like MISTER who discriminate from those who receive money for college will. Affirmative Action is in business because of discrimination. Will they want it to stop? Will the numbers of 87% white teachers in the nation be reflective of the majority, or minorities? I don't know. It's a dizziness of hypocrisy if you ask me.
I agree with Clinton completely. The staff should reflect the population of the student body. I think it will happen naturally, and if boys like the one quoted are attending, I'm sure they'll do their best to be certain no white females will feel respected, safe, or welcome to teach them anything. They will quit most likely, unless they're in it for the challenges we all run into.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Randy B.