Men Teaching: Providing Influence In Elementary Classrooms

Kyle Queen, fourth-grade teacher at Bonnie Grimes Elementary School, helps Allan Alfaro with computer research during class in Rogers. Queen is one of 39 men employed as elementary school teachers in the Rogers School District.
Kyle Queen, fourth-grade teacher at Bonnie Grimes Elementary School, helps Allan Alfaro with computer research during class in Rogers. Queen is one of 39 men employed as elementary school teachers in the Rogers School District.

— Men who teach are a minority in elementary classrooms.

Seven percent of the elementary teachers in Rogers are men. Some elementary schools, such as Bonnie Grimes Elementary School, have several men teaching classes; others have one. Sometimes one of those men is a physical education coach who works at more than one school.

By The Numbers

Teacher Information

October data from the Rogers School District shows 81 percent of teachers in Rogers are women and 19 percent are men.

• At the elementary level 7 percent of teachers are men.

• At the middle school level 22 percent of teachers are men.

• At the high school level 39 percent of teachers are men.

Nationwide 2011 data shows that most teachers are women. Overall data from education, training and library occupations show men occupy 26.4 percent of those jobs.

• At the preschool/kindergarten level 2.3 percent of teachers are men.

• At the elementary and middle school level 18.3 percent of teachers are men.

• At the high school level 42 percent of teachers are men.

• At the college level 53.8 percent of teachers are men.

Source: Rogers School District/U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Elementary schools need teachers who are men, said Debra Lewis, Grimes principal. Many of her students are missing the influence of a man who is positive role model.

As a child that was Ryan Quintana.

“A lot of people didn't think I’d finish high school,” said Quintana, a fifth-grade teacher at Grimes.

The bracelets Quintana wears represent his past and his future. On his right wrist plastic letters spell his nickname “Rook” and the address to his childhood apartment in New Mexico. On his left wrist is a silicone wristband that reads “Teach from the heart” surrounded by bracelets with a string of letters representing the first names of the children he teaches. He never takes them off.

Looking at his students he sees reflections of the boy he was, raised by a single mom without a lot of money. He never thought he’d be a dad to so many at such a young age.

When he was a senior in high school, a teacher named Dexter Hawkins challenged him to go to college.

“College is for rich, smart people and I’m none of those,” Quintana remembers telling him.

Hawkins told him if he could make it as boy from the streets of New Jersey, then Quintana had no excuse. That is a lesson Quintana hopes to pass on.

“I want to prove to people that no matter where you’re from, rich or poor, you can make it. Anything is possible,” he said.

His teaching license is for kindergarten through eighth grade. Quintana teaches fifth grade and science students rotate through his classroom. Middle school children are at a turning point, but he likes elementary school because those children are new to everything. Life is hard, he tells students. Work through it.

“Being a guy, a lot of these boys look up to me,” Quintana said.

Gender doesn’t change a person’s ability to teach, said Michele Linch, executive director of the Arkansas State Teachers Association. A balance of men and women is useful in schools both as role models and in being able to relate to students, she said.

“As far as learning, a good teacher is a good teacher,” Linch said.

There is almost a stigma, a different perception of men who teach younger grades, Linch said.

Her association functions as a membership and advocacy group for school employees and occasionally there are frantic calls from teachers wrongly accused by a parent or student of inappropriate behavior, but those calls are from women.

“You've just got to use your common sense,” Linch said.

Last year, Linch was teaching at University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Arkansas Tech University. She watched male students pick middle school and high school certifications because that would allow them to teach what they love: English, history and math.

“In the elementary, they are just scarce,” Linch said.

Hiring practices in Rogers aren’t based on gender or ethnicity, but the district does get more applications from women than men, said Roger Hill, assistant superintendent for human resources.

“We don’t think that’s really different for Rogers than any other part of the state or the nation,” Hill said.

Teaching isn’t really thought of as a “masculine” job, said Rodney Fulton, a fifth-grade teacher at Russell D. Jones Elementary School, but he doesn’t see himself as a minority.

“It’s like something we don’t even think about,” Fulton said.

Teaching elementary school is a second career for him, his first job in education was a high school guidance counselor in 1973. In his 40s he went back to school and became certified in elementary education. He became the first man to teach kindergarten in Rogers after his principal asked if he would take the class for a year. He taught kindergarten for eight years. Fulton has since taught every elementary grade and finds a challenge in switching grades and material.

Elementary education allows him to watch children discover.

“That thrill is the adrenaline that keeps me going,” Fulton said.

Good teachers — no matter their gender — know what they are teaching, understand how to teach it and can test if students are learning then adjust to meet their needs, Fulton said.

Matt Garrett, a fifth-grade teacher at Old Wire Elementary School is known for his white lab coat emblazoned with “Science is Cool.”

He pushes for gender equality in science, trying to interest girls in science and technology. Everybody thinks boys naturally like science, Garret said.

“I do it extra for the girls because they’re kinda overlooked,” he said.

Sometimes as he’s walking down the hallway a student will greet him with “hey Dad” then look a little embarrassed for the slip-up. It doesn’t bother Garrett. Teachers are still cool at the elementary level, Garrett said.

“I don’t know if it would be as rewarding to be a high school teacher,” he said.

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