Home Hot Topics Articles Directors' Choice Awards About Us / Contact Us Activities & Curriculum Activities for Outcome-Based Learning Arts & Crafts Music for Learning Recommended Reading Sharing Boards: What Do YOU Think? NEWSlink Current National News Conference Calendar Topics In Early Childhood Education Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education Job Sharing Board State Licensing Requirements Stay Connected! Each month we'll send you an email filled with articles and ideas for your classroom. Subscribe Now Date: 5/20/2000 12:42:00 PM Author: Brian (Wanderingdragon1@Hotmail.Com) Subject: Males In ECC Statistics can (and do) show almost anything the statistician wants to show. The ones that say children are in more danger from males than females are particularly suspect. In my Child Abuse class in college, a postal inspector who has been fighting child pornography for over 20 years told us that he thinks the danger is about equal, but for various cultural reasons child sexual abuse by women is underreported ... for instance, a young male who is indoctrinated sexually by an older woman is considered to be lucky, while a female of the same age indoctrinated by an older male is considered to be raped. So, all the professional organizations like NAEYC say we want more males in Early Childhood Education, and (obviously) I agree with that. The children need male nurturing and role modeling just as much as they need female nurturing and role modeling. It's a 50/50 need, and many of them simply aren't getting it, with resulting problems in adolescence. So what, female colleagues, are you offering both the men already in ECC and the men we are trying to recruit? Let me suggest that countenancing the unfounded fears and perceptions of parents that I am more likely to sexually abuse the children in my charge than my team teacher, who is a young female, is certainly not going to keep me in the field and is definitly not going to attract other men. As dedicated as I am, and as much as I absolutely love working with young children, I am simply not going to tolerate having to go all day in a defensive posture. If my female colleagues are not going to defend me and educate parents, then I suggest that the stated need for males in the field is simply lip service to gender equality and nothing more, and that we men who have dedicated our lives to young children probably need to go somewhere where we are not automatically suspect just because we're men. Name: Email: Subject

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