Some school districts are taking steps to remedy what they see as a shortage of male teachers. At the Ferryway School in Malden, Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported that male teachers can be found in only four of the school's 35 classrooms. "The district has a job fair every year, but we don't see a lot of guys," principal Thomas DeVito told the newspaper. DeVito went on to say that when it comes to elementary school teachers, "I don't think I've interviewed any males in the last five or six years." The report cites a study from Swarthmore College which suggested that some boys "may respond better to a coach-like sternness found in some male teachers" and that some boys seem to end up doing better in reading with male teachers. Still, the author of the study, Thomas Dee, observed that "teacher quality often gets lost in this debate." According to the National Education Association website, a million experienced teachers nationwide are nearing retirement age, creating the need for up to two million teachers to be hired over the next ten years. This shortage is particularly acute in urban and rural areas, as well as in areas like special needs, mathematics and science.  |