When I was a child, I would attend elementary school daily. Everyday Id sit there, and be puzzled. Why werent there any teachers like me? Was it not ok for boys to be teachers? Where were the male teachers in early elementary school?
Growing up in this highly politically correct time I am part of a powerful but much resented demographic. I am a Caucasian male, the only social group its still ok to poke fun at, dislike, or hate just because. Due to this fact, I do not recognize hidden curriculums or micro inequalities as affecting me. Im not saying they dont exist. However, if they do, I wouldnt notice them, because they all, supposedly, benefit me. I never participated in (or even cared about) school sports, so I never experienced the differences in financial backing. I dont remember teachers saying You cant do that because you are a girl to any of the girls in the class. All in all, I can remember no instances of schools subjecting anyone to the horrors of oppression or pushing morally questionable agendas.
I do have one memory of how my upbringing in school affected my gender identity though, and that is the lack of male teachers in younger grades. You see, its a horrible travesty, and quite illegal, to look at a job and say Its not ok for a woman to do this job. But when we see a male teacher teaching kindergarten, people turn there nose up. A man working with children so young? Many people would find that idea preposterous, questioning the mans intentions. Automatically many would believe the man to be some kind of pedophile. That still happens to this day. But, since this discrimination happens to males its a-ok in everybodys opinion.
When I was a boy of about 5 or 6, I thought that teaching was a girls job, and that men went out and did business or were doctors and lawyers. I knew there were girls that did boy jobs but careers were clearly delineated. I didnt realize that this really affected me in any particular way, but I would have liked to see some male role models early in my education. Not that Im complaining about my male role models, my father was an educated man, a lawyer, with enough knowledge of pop culture to not make him boring. However, not every child is as fortunate to have such a good role model. What about children who dont have a father, or one that mistreats them? I think that if I did have any male teachers it would have given a wider range to base my opinions of how a male should act. It would have been nice to see some people more like me teaching.
If things were this delineated when I was growing up, I can only imagine what they must have been like for my father. At least by the time I was in 4th grade I was starting to see male teachers. Ill bet back in the 50s, when my father was growing up I cant imagine that there would be many male teachers at all. This was also before the time of the Civil Rights movement. Im sure he was subjected to all kinds of stereotypes of what women should be, and what men should be. Even though I may have had things delineated for me as far as gender roles, Im sure they were set in stone for him.
I do not know how education will affect children being born now. We are starting to see more men teaching in the younger grades. Still not nearly as equal as it should be, but change takes time. It is my fear, however, that in later grades, when I truly became comfortable with my gender identity, that young men of tomorrow will be faced with an environment of fear and mistrust. Why would such a thing happen? Ever since the shootings at Columbine, schools have been ferocious in security measures. I think that it will some day get so bad that schools will use gender based profiling to weed out dangerous and aggressive young men. This will only lead boys into feeling that they are feared and untrustworthy, which will instill either low self-confidence or great anger. High school is a difficult time for young men. They do get aggressive, they do get angry. Its a difficult time in their lives, so much is changing, and those feelings are perfectly normal. These policies would make them feel like they are being punished and stigmatized for growing up.
Now that I think about it, the educational system is quite gender biased. But I believe that it goes both ways. Women are not given a fair shake; that much is not in dispute. But, men are not untouched by gender biases either.