What's the Difference Between a Man Teacher and a Woman Teacher?
On Harry's first day as a day care worker, a grinning preschooler came up to him, swinging his fists, and saying, "I'm gonna beat you up!" Harry grabbed the preschooler, pulled him into his lap, gave him a few playful punches in the tummy, and said, "Oh yeah? Sez who!"
A woman teacher said, "Nathan, that's not nice." Then, at the next teachers' meeting, the same woman teacher commented on how delighted she was to receive Harry in the teaching staff, and how valuable his presence would be in meeting the children's need for a good male image.
Without realizing it, this woman teacher was inconsistent. She didn't understand the natural differences between paternal love and maternal love which will inevitably come to surface in any caqregiving setting. Let's look at the differences between paternal love and maternal love:
Men are more tolerant toward gross motor activity on the part of children than are women..
Compared with women teachers, male teachers tend to ask for more free play. They also initiate athletic and practical activities, such as woodworking and bicycle repair, and even including activities which are traditionally feminine.
Compared with women teachers, male teachers also have a higher tolerance for noise. What others might call "noise and confusion" a man teacher might call "the hum of activity."
Men exert more gross motor activity with children than do women.
When I teach music to younger children, I ask individual children to sit on my shoulders while I do squats. Then I ask individual children to sit on my back while I do push-ups. All this time, the other children play and sing high notes and low notes while I go up and down - that is, those children who aren't consumed with giggles.
It's not just me. Fathers of infants and fathers of preschoolers have been found to be more playful than mothers. Male child care workers and teachers are more prone to roughhouse with children than are women child care workers and teachers.
What causes this gender difference? Nothing more than parental roles through millions of years of prehistory. Whereas a prehistoric woman's role is to nurture children, a prehistoric man's role is to toughen children up in case of a visit from enemies or predators. That is why we see this same gender difference all over the Primate Class.
There may have been men who didn't like to play-fight with children, but if there were, those men did not become our ancestors. Their children tended to get killed before they could pass their genes in our direction.
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