Men make better headteachers compared to women.
Of course, my experience of headteachers is rather limited, extremely limited.
I was sitting in the staffroom at lunch time enjoying lazy chat with the teachers and classroom assistants. It was coming to the end of lunch and people were slowly sauntering out of the classroom for the final couple of school hours. Conversation with the remaining few managed to get onto the top of what the school was like post-Headteacher Mr H, roughly 6 years ago. I had known about the school’s reputation before Mr H but talking to the TAs shone a new light on it all. Some talked of how “horrible” it had been and how some days they just “didn’t want to go into school.” One woman remembered being “scared” to come into the school. The general consensus seemed that the previous headteacher, who was a woman, simply was not any good.
Back when I was at primary school, I remember having a new headteacher for the last year or so of my time at the school. The previous headteacher (a man) had retired and the new headteacher was a woman. I don’t really remember any details or such as I was only 10/11 and adult speak then was fairly boring to me but I do remember whispers of discontent and dislike about the new headteacher. She didn’t last long and I can’t help but wonder if it was because she wasn’t any good. Not that I know for sure because I’ve never asked…
Of course, it could just be that there are far more male headteachers than there are female teachers so on average, female headteachers might actually be better. Then again, it could be that women don’t work all that well with other women and men have more success at the helm. Maybe it’s all just down to personality and professional attributes of single people that affect the way they work. And maybe the more experience I become, the more likely I will be to change my mind.
I can’t help but feel men might just be that little bit better.
Listening to: Amplifier – UFOs
By the time I was 10/11 the only male teacher in my schooling so far at all was the head of the primary, and I went to pre-school. But from that age onwards, it was about 50/50. There’s a few reasons I can find for the paucity of male teachers and they all sound sensible, but I’m struck by how strong the difference was between primary and secondary, and I know it’s not a unique phenomenon.
Women who act like men make good headteachers, I’m sure. That seems like a contradiction in terms, but it takes a certain kind of person to be the ambitious head-teacher role-seeking type. I don’t really know, the only experience I’ve personally had of headteachers have been women. I can’t say I’ve been particularly impressed.
Re: male teachers generally – don’t you get some sort of grant/bursary if you’re a man who wants to teach primary, cos they want them so desperately?
Also, talk more about teaching faces, pls.
I found, in a slightly unrelated note, that when we had our nursery visits during paediatrics a couple of years back the kids were much more keen on using me as a climbing frame and a snap-snap-crocodile and a metal detector metal-hiding person than they were my (female) compatriot. I asked the nursery lady and she said that the male students who come in always get a spectacular response, so there clearly is something in it. I have never come across a bad male teacher in either primary or secondary schools, but my experience was pretty limited by the female dominance anyway. The best teacher I have had, however, was a woman.
I don’t know how important gender is beyond primary, but I think in primary school having a good mix of teachers is important. Kids want the mix, but I’d not be able to hazard a guess as to why.
Hey, remember that time when you used to blog?
RwS – never come across a poor male teacher?! Lucky you!
Totally blogged now.
I approve. Do it again now, kthx.
I’m totally not demanding.
I’ve had bad male teachers and bad female teachers – and good examples of both genders. It has to be said though that if I were to rank all the school teachers I ever had in terms of how much I liked and respected them and the influence they had on me, the top four (at least, and off the top of my head) would all be male. There are some brilliant women on that list as well – my teachers at my London infants’ school were amazing, my year 7 science teacher was inspiring, but for whatever reason the absolute stand-out figures are all male.
I also think a mix of genders at primary level is crucial. Children need strong role models of both sexes and they may not necessarily see those at home. And I’d hate to say out and out that male headteachers are better, or even that they tend to be. Not least because it makes me feel sexist, but also because I cannot possibly judge given that my experience is limited to a sum total of about six, of which three were women who did a very good job (though for two of those I was too young to really percieve it), and three men of whom one was excellent, a second very good indeed, and the third absolutely bloody useless.
Now, I think it’s lunch time.