Everything Dad
A little girl needs her daddy
To love her with manly charm,
To soothe her when she’s hurt,
And keep her safe from harm.
A girl needs her dad
To show her a man who’s good,
To help her make right choices,
As only a father could.
A woman needs her father
Just to be aware,
He’ll always be there for her
To sustain her and to care.
You’ve been all these things, Dad.
I hope that you can see
How much I treasure you;
You mean everything to me.
- Joanna Fuchs
Male Role Models
ReplyDeleteIssue 3: Male Role Models in Boys’ Lives
Many boys lack models of productive masculinity and turn to peer groups and the media for models of manhood. Gender roles have become more complex, and more families have become female-headed. As a result, many boys are confused about what it means to be a successful, good man. The declining number of male teachers also removes male models from many boys’ lives, and male teachers are more likely to understand boys’ behavior and needs. Mentoring programs which give boys attention from successful men are believed to be one answer as well as programs which increase the number of men in the classroom. Since more teachers in the middle grades are women boys are at the greater disadvantage.
Research and Policy Questions:
What types of mentoring programs are located in the schools, in community organizations, and in faith-based organizations? How are mentoring programs changing to internet, group, and peer-based designs? What is the evidence for their effectiveness? Qualitative, contextual research is needed, not only research on the quantitative results of mentoring.
What are the reasons for the declining number of male teachers and what evidence suggests that male teachers are more sensitive to boys’ needs and more successful in increasing achievement, developing engagement in school, and providing positive models of masculinity for boys?
Sources:
1. MENTOR.
http://www.mentoring.org/about_us/index.php
MENTOR is a major advocate and resource for the expansion of mentoring initiatives nationwide. This organization works with a network of state and local Mentoring Partnerships to provide the support and tools for mentoring organizations. This site is useful both for researchers interested in identifying pressing research needs and for organizations interested in starting or improving mentoring programs.
2. National Mentoring Center, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/index.php
The National Mentoring Center provides training and technical assistance to mentoring programs. Its section on mentoring research is a valuable collection of articles examining the relationships between different types of mentoring programs and such outcomes as academic performance, homework, fighting and suspensions, school absenteeism, drug and alcohol use, and depression.
3. Dee, Thomas. Chr mos me: How a teacher’s gender affects boys and girls. (2006). Education Next, 69-75.
Using a nationally representative sample of nearly 25,000 eighth graders from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, initiated in 1988, Dee finds that test scores increase in English, science, and social studies when girls are taught by women and boys are taught by men. Teacher surveys show that, when a class is taught by a woman, boys are more likely to be viewed as disruptive and boys are significantly more likely to report that they did not look forward to the subject. Dee points out that such gender effects disadvantage male middle grade students more than female students because more teachers are women.
Some of above material provided by:
ReplyDeletehttp://boysproject.net/resources.html