Advantages to Being a Male Pre-K Teacher

There are a few distinct advantages to being a male pre-k teacher.  For me, the most important advantage is appearance.  I don't deal with a lot of pressure to keep up my appearance.  I often go weeks at a time without shaving, and I only cut my hair 2-3 times a year.  People often comment on me "growing out my beard".  I don't grow out my beard, I'm just too lazy to shave.  It's also worth noting that I'm currently wearing a 10-year-old pair of Dr. Marten's boots, and the left one is held together by yarn.  It helps that I'm not trying to impress anyone, but do you think a woman could get away with something like this without being talked about?

Another advantage to being a male pre-k teacher is something that I actually confirmed by reading a study recently: women work harder to take care of men in traditionally female professions.  It's the opposite in traditionally male professions, where men often see women as threats.  At my school, I think the women see me as more like a mascot.  Being a male,  my coworkers are more patient with me, and more willing to let me slide when it comes to things.  Being a male, I feel it is important to be visible around the school, and I do my best to provide some attention to as many kids as I can, even those from other classrooms.  I do this because so many of them are not getting male attention at home.  One side effect of this is that I might walk past a classroom who is going down the hall and have 17 kids screaming my name when they see me.  You have a perfectly quiet class one minute, and the next minute the whole class is talking and screaming.  Teachers don't get nearly as upset about it as you'd expect.  I think if I was a woman it would be a bigger deal.  I'm also pretty outspoken at times about things I don't agree with, and people don't get upset with me like they might if others said them.

Being a male, I have a HUGE advantage when it comes to classroom management.  Year in and year out I have one of the best behaved classes in the school.  My first year my kids were terrible, but that was because I still didn't know what I was doing.  I learned a lot from my assistant that year, and haven't had a bad class since.  It helps that my current assistant is very good with classroom management/discipline as well.  This year we have a class that I can honestly say I believe would walk all over a good portion of the other teachers at this school.  I owe the majority of my success in the area of classroom management and discipline to being a male.  I even have several teachers that bring a child or two out of their rooms to me from time to time to straighten them up.  Having a deep voice is a big help when you work at a school where corporal punishment is not allowed.