NZ's low rates of male early childhood teachers seen as problematic

personally i feel rewarded while i do child care service and keen to know more about male teachers in australia and newzealand

The highly publicised Peter Ellis case where he was falsely accused of molesting children eventhough the evidence proves he was innocent. For goodness sake! He didn't even have a driver's licence and couldn't drive a car so couldn't have transported or travelled with the kids in the time the prosectution state he took....All it takes is for one person, parent or corrupt cop to do as they did in his case using false leading interview techniques such as, "did he touch you with a spoon like this" and "did he prod you like this or like that?"....In the case of Ellis the investigating cop was linked with the complainant teacher and yet this was not highlighted as a conflict of interest and collusion on their part to make up circumstancial and questionable evidence in destroying Ellis' innocent life...I am too afraid to work in ECE for fear of being accused of acting inapproriately by a disgruntled child, parent or teacher (as in the Ellis case). If the child states "He touched me and did this to me" regardless you have to prove beyond a doubt that you did no such thing and if you cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt then it's bye bye prison time for you as was the case for Ellis. Enter ECE as a male teacher at your own risk.

I have been reading the comments and have a couple of my own I am 43year old, family man with a productive building company. I have had employs that make a three year old look tame. I have made and lost money. Three weeks ago I spent a day at an early child hood centre and I found a job satisfaction that is hard to explain. The children these days need real men to look up to. They need to be taught and shown respect and the younger the better. With that said any one can build houses but it takes skill to change lives. So I have frozen the company and have taken the challenge to go back to studying. And later when finished join the other teachers that are trying to change the next generation for the better.

Craig I guess I"m talking about being an earlychildhood teacher. At this age everything a child experiences is learning and it is our job to foster children's enthusiasm for learning to ensure that children become life long learners. I have been privilged enough to attend many conferences throught out the country and this year will be on a study tour to Melbourne. I can only go back to my earlier comments. Early childhood teaching is hardwork, but it is a fantastic career which is full of fun, excitement and the rewards are limitless so I can only say how cool it has been for me and encourage more men to give it a go.

I can understand the valuable points that Rick, Russel and Dave bring to the conversation. However kids these days seem to have no respect for their elders or even the police and only have to say one word out of context and there will be a investigation looming over your heads. Good on you guys out there facing diversity and becoming teachers. To be honest Dave i did once think of becoming a secondary school engineering teacher as im a qualified turbine mechanical supervising engineer and i manage people on a daily basis, but after thinking about putting up with other peoples disruptive kids that just want to muck around at school while trying to teach a class of students that actually want to learn would drive me crazy. I prefer my job and make a very nice comfortable annual salary, but the beauty of my job is i get paid to travel to different county's and supervise overhauls of multi million dollar machinery while learning new cultures and after the overhauls i have even flown my family over for holidays in some brilliant destinations. what teaching job gives you those sorts of experiences?

I've been working in childcare centres for the last three years and am in my final year of study to become a qualified early childhood teacher. Although I need to cover the same curriculum as the female teachers my approach is often very different. It is also important for children to see that men can be caring, fun, postive rolemodels - especially those children without father figures in their lives. With this in mind I agree with Craig - that it's important to leave teaching up to the people that know kids best.

its sad that men believe the risks are great - whereas we all know that children are safer in an early childhood centre than at home where most of the abuse happens(99%) - come on guys there is much to be offered by men and women working with children and they need both men and women to work with them - same curriculum but different approaches - thats what is important and that is what is missing at the moment - thankfully there are men who are prepared to commit to young children - we would love there to be many more

nick and cyril have nailed it on the head. It's too much of a risk for men to get involved these days, apparently we are all sicko child molesters.

I am a kindergarten teacher have been since I left high school and went straight to teachers college twenty years ago.It's a great career choice. Yes there are plenty of knockers but where else can you turn up for work and not be sure if your going to be a All black, spaceman,superhero or spend the mornig reading stories.As for rewards I'm 38 and earn $80000 a year i think thats better good, so man up and give it a go its the coolest job your can have.

I cant see how the kids are "missing out". The male teachers have to teach the same currculim as female teachers and for a male teacher it is way too risky to be accused of something that would end a career and your life as you know it. I certainly would not become a teacher , low pay , lots of planning and stress, and disruptive kids all day long nooooo way. I have two awesome kids at home and spend lots of quality time with them both and my wife does a brilliant job of looking after them when im at work. I think we should leave the teaching up to the people that know kids best.