I was just talking about this issue this week. Well done. My kids go to school in Paris and there are zero male teachers, at least until they are 11 or 12. Thinking back, I think my first male teacher (in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1980's) would have been at 7th grade, so age 12 or 13. And I definitely think it would have helped. I played sports, so I had male coaches, but that's not for everyone and it's not the same thing.
This is my experience in a nutshell. Likewise, I was an avid athlete. While I am profoundly grateful for some of my coaches, others were flat out lunatics. Like, WTF was it going through the heads of those fellas? Maybe their Bike brand shorts were too tight? Their whistles too clogged? Your comment has challenge me to reflect more seriously about the role of male coaches in my formative years. It also reminds me that never have I ever had a female coach, itself a problem.
I was just talking about this issue this week. Well done. My kids go to school in Paris and there are zero male teachers, at least until they are 11 or 12. Thinking back, I think my first male teacher (in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1980's) would have been at 7th grade, so age 12 or 13. And I definitely think it would have helped. I played sports, so I had male coaches, but that's not for everyone and it's not the same thing.
This is my experience in a nutshell. Likewise, I was an avid athlete. While I am profoundly grateful for some of my coaches, others were flat out lunatics. Like, WTF was it going through the heads of those fellas? Maybe their Bike brand shorts were too tight? Their whistles too clogged? Your comment has challenge me to reflect more seriously about the role of male coaches in my formative years. It also reminds me that never have I ever had a female coach, itself a problem.