Blog #8: Mister, Mister, do you know of a black man that would like to teach?

  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?