<p>Drab:</p>
<p>I am not sure I understand your first paragraph. I am definitely for increasing the proportion of male teachers as well as minority teachers. But not because male teachers necessarily have different teaching styles or reward different things from female teachers. My Ss have had both male and female teachers in k-8 and I did not observe differences in style. Perhaps the reason is that people with certain personalities are drawn to teaching, regardless of gender. I do think that if there were more male teachers, the teaching profession would be more respected both by students and by the general public. As for minorities, I do believe in role models. Having more minority teachers would make learning more acceptable to those minority students who are concerned with “acting white.”</p>
<p>As for the social sciences/humanities vs. math/science issue, while the students in the former are more likely to be female, those who do the grading–at least in the universities with which I am familiar–are still more likely to be male. Whose gender is the important one?</p>
<p>I do not think that Barbara Ehrenheich would claim that having a higher GPA should be the ticket to jobs. She was just arguing, tongue-in-cheek, that there was a good reason for men not to be so concerned about academic success because that’s not what society rewards. I mentioned the article because it seemed inspired specifically by the topic that launched this thread.</p>