Maybe I'm too idealistic then...but I'd like to believe that people are hired based on capabilities and not how they look.
Not in South Africa, they're not.
Some people are just lucky to be attractive and intelligent.
Haaaahahahahahaahaha. Sorry that was epic funny. XD
You won't know until you give men a chance.
I've given them a chance, trust me this won't be the first time kindergarten has let a guy roam about. I'm not saying I'm not giving them a chance, but I don't like it or feel comfortable leaving my children in the care of a man I don't know from squat. My primary role as a parent is to protect my children. I'd be an idiot to ignore when my instincts go ballistic.
It's unfair to say a man working with children is a potential paedophile.
I don't see the difference between a man being a principal or being a carer of small children. A principal is still working with children, so by your reasoning, he would still have the opportunity to molest children...maybe even more opportunity considering how much influence a principal can have.
A principal is generally appointed over a school, primary or high. My point is that older children have a better understanding of what is right and what is wrong versus little ones who are just trying their wings outside the nest.
I know you're worried about children, but I've seen more cases of women molesting, beating and killing children in their care than men. There was a very bad case a few years back with a woman who worked at a nursery and started a porn business using the children, and got away with it for months. Then there are cases of mother killing their children, and cases where female teachers have raped underage boys. So don't tell me all women have this magical 'maternal instinct' when they are capable of doing something as sick as that.
The worst of it is, these women get away with it because they claim mental ilness, post natal depression, a divorce or drinking problem. If it was a man, he'd be locked up. It's not fair to have this double standard. A crime is a crime and should not be judged differently based on the gender of the perpetrator.
'kay, I ain't touchin' that ****.
To me, 'maternal instinct' is a myth. If that was real, all women would isntantly love their baby, there would be no cases of infanticide or toddlers being starved and beaten; there would be no women on internet forums or blogs saying they hate their baby, that they feel depressed and overwhelmed and that the baby was a mistake.
The idea of maternal instinct is just as damaging to women as it is to men.
Maternal instinct obviously takes time. Men who are single fathers have this 'maternal' instinct more so than others because they spend long hours and late nights seeing to the whim and need of their little ones. It's something that's created, not already existing. Mothers with newborns aren't maternal divas right off the bat. That's not how it works. You learn, and through your learning, you bond in a way with your baby that is and always will be different from any relationship they may have later in life. Generally women who are childhood educators who are mothers already have that instinct, they understand it, which is why they can do such a good job at caring for little kids. This versus childhood educators who don't have children of their own - you can tell the difference. It's a BIG difference. And this is just with women. If I feel ill at ease leaving my child with a woman who has no children of her own, it's ridiculous to expect that I'd be okay with some childless young dude hanging out with my kid.
Saying only women have maternal instinct pushes men away from being involved in their child's life. No wonder men don't want to interact with their children when there's this idea that only mothers truly know how to do it. Men need to be given a chance.
What appalls me is when a father goes to a baby group with his child, he's treated like a potential molestor. It's just wrong to treat a man like that, espeically if he wants to be involved with his childs life. I hear women complaining that men do nothing for their babies, then treat them like potential paedophiles when they do.
If it's going to be that attitude towards fathers who want to be involved, then mothers might as well throw the fathers out as soon as the baby is born just in case he turns out to be a molestor to other children or his own. Heck, you might as well just make a baby using a sperm bank if men are so useless and dangerous to babies and toddlers.
You're confusing my concerns about men teaching little children with fathers. There is a massive, MASSIVE fissure between these two. If it was a father who wanted to get into the early childhood field, I'd be more welcoming to it. There are constantly fathers dropping off and spending a couple of hours with their kids at the kindergarten and I LOVE watching them interact. If it were an actual father figure wanting to hang with the kids, I'm game. But they're picking this guy up from nowhere, who just happens to LOVE kids and who wants to get into the business. Do you see my side of things yet?
I don't know....you have one lot of people complaining men aren't men anymore because of the feminisation of education and call for more male teachers, while the other half brands all men as potential child molestors if they so much as express an interest in working with children.
That's because that is the world we live in. Some countries have less statistics of molestation than others. I know too many girls back home who have been molested and sexually abused by men. And these are guys that the parents trusted and knew. I highly doubt that you and I are going to find common ground on this subject. You're coming from a place where nothing in your life/family/country has given you much cause for concern. I'm coming from a place where my life and the lives of everyone around me has been stained from minor to full-out indecencies acted out by men.
You're right, children are manipulated, but women do that to them as well as men. The worst cases I have seen have been perpetrated by females because of the idea of 'maternal instinct'. People who hired them assume all women have this instinct, and as such, would never be molestors. Boy were they wrong....It's dangerous to assume all women know how to care for babies and toddlers. There are some sick women out there who get away with it because they are women and use this assumption that they have maternal instinct to their advantage. Because of that, you're left with devastated parents, feeling betrayed by the people they trusted their children to, and children who are going to be damaged, maybe for life.
So it's best not to assume that women know best, have maternal instinct, and will never molest children. You could be proven tragically wrong.
