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Comment by spicyusername | Hacker News Reader

Public Schools are looking for STEM teachers.

Possibly not great for men:

"One of my sons works in early education. He can talk quite movingly about the stigma that you'll face as a man. People will question your motives. At worst, some people will suggest, either jokingly or not, that you might be motivated by pedophilia. "What is it about young kids that appeals to you?" is the kind of question you hear.

There are some quite nasty stereotypes around men in those professions."

https://www.upr.org/npr-news/npr-news/2022-11-04/men-are-str...

...and repeating such stereotypes like this only serves to further them. Let's not spread such nonsense.

Early education --- preschool and perhaps early elementary --- is admittedly a tough place for men.

On the other hand, someone who's spent a lot of time honing technical skills probably belongs not teaching preschool & kindergarten but in upper elementary, middle school, or beyond. And I've found that a perfectly welcoming place as a middle school & high school teacher (and running after-school programs for upper elementary).

A dirty little secret, too, is that men often have a much easier time with classroom management, etc, because of cultural biases.

A close friend just moved across the country and back because what he thought would be his dream teaching job turned out to be laced with dramatic and patently insane identity politics as described. He is himself a socialist passionate about helping poor working class people, but his coworkers were snotty out-of-touch liberals with no conception of class divisions at all. They were intent on dividing society along gender lines.

> but his coworkers were snotty out-of-touch liberals with no conception of class divisions at all. They were intent on dividing society along gender lines.

Unfortunately I have heard the same. I know 3 male high school teachers and the stories I hear are unfathomable, you could never convince me to teach at a high school.

Hard to understand such activism aiming at dividing society, they emphasise the issues while almost completely forgetting to mention cooperation that exists between the various groups.

Right. They seem to think that the aggregate of women could be made happier even while the aggregate of men are made miserable.

And it's not just schools. It's also social work. And related fields. Basically, all the things you'd want to involve yourself in "to make a difference" are dominated by liberals.

I disagree that most "make a difference" fields are dominated by liberals. In my experience, many non-profit board members tend to be wealthy conservatives - bankers, car dealership owners, real estate brokers, etc. This can lead even organizations where the mission, staff or clients are mostly liberal to develop a conservative, elitist culture. Combined with the revolving door of donors and relatives into senior leadership roles, it also can lead an upper management that trends conservative.

Many low-paying social service jobs are filled by spouses of people with high-paying jobs. This can lead to an elitist culture, even in the lower levels.

There is also a lot of overlap between social service orgs and religious orgs which can lead to a conflict between mission and church doctrine.

All in all, I perceive it as being as diverse a field as the rest of society, and filled with many viewpoints. It doesn't seem dominated by one "side" or the other

Disagree. There are surprisingly few actual conservatives in the American ruling class, which is why the Democratic Party is statistically the party of the rich. I think your definition of “conservative” is something closer to “person I don’t like.”

For the record, I don’t support American liberals or conservatives, who both waste too much time avoiding confrontation with the root problem: capitalism.

Fwiw, my definition of conservative in this case is someone with views traditionally in line with the Republican and Libertarian platform. Someone who tends to vote Republican and tends to view things through that lens.

I think your goal is to attack the person and and not the idea, which has nothing to do with my experience-based opinion that it's more nuanced than "dominated by liberals".

I hope you are exaggerating

Yes, the zeitgeist in the USA has shifted strongly against men across almost every dimension (and the left works hard to remain willfully ignorant about this). I think that, if I were working at a school, I'd record at least audio every day, and keep all recordings for 30-days in the event of an accusation.

That said, it feels like the fever is breaking, and unfounded allegations (and generalizations) have become so common that they are still relatively easily ignored. It sucks that anyone must endure this, of course, but c'est la vie. As dark ages go, this one is relatively mild and short lived. Only a few thousand lives unfairly ruined over ~10 years. Not that bad in the scheme of things.

How would you break in to this without going through school again to get certified?

If you have the knowledge they might hire you as a teachers assistant helping the teacher with curricula and teaching the subject.

In almost every school district, there is an emergency rule that says that a bachelor's degree in an appropriate field is enough.

That said, unless you have a passion for teaching and an enormous tolerance for people making mistakes, I would avoid this.

Many school systems (in the US) will hire on a provisional basis, especially for STEM teachers because they are often so desperate for them. You usually get 1-3 years to complete some certifications and then move into the regular CLP style continuous learning after that.

Become a substitute teacher first. I've heard good STEM substitutes are hard to find. (and frequently rebooked)

It'll also a low bar way to test out whether you enjoy teaching, and which age range you prefer to teach.

How does that pay though? I know OP mentioned they’re fine with a paycut, but I my understanding was subs tend to get a low per-diem pay that would probably end up much less than 1/3 of what they were getting in tech. Most subs I remember tended to be rather old and I imagine they were mostly supplementing other income.

In the upper Midwest, somewhere between 100-200 per day is typical.

Just be ready to get called at 5AM for work at 7AM at a school that could be an hour away, and then get treated like shit by the staff and the kids. You could not pay me enough to do that.

It's a huge amount of work, but I've met a couple of people who set up their own out of hours "school" and have been running it for years. That said, they lost money on it and even now it only breaks even in a good year, so it depends whether you're looking for a worthy occupation to fill your time, or something to do.

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