Most students remember their favorite teacher. Maybe she was the one who gave treats for good behavior or read books with the best funny voices or challenged her students to love learning.
Or maybe she wasn’t a she at all.
“I’ve always loved working with kids,” said Micah Cating, a secondary education senior. “It may sound funny, but there’s a lot of freedom in it.”
Cating is male.
He belongs to a minority, both at LSU and nationally.
A recent National Education Survey showed that only two of every 10 teachers are male; LSU has only 318 males of a total of 1,576 students pursuing a degree in education.
Frankie Mulligan, an elementary education senior, is another one of the few.
He said he is usually the only boy in his class, and sometimes that can be isolating.
Desmond Moore, an elementary education senior, agrees. He said it is difficult because of the stereotype that comes with being the only male in a class.
“Everyone thinks I want to be a coach. But that’s not what I want,” he said. “I want to touch lives.”
Cating also said it is difficult being the only male.
“Sometimes, you just want to come in and talk with a guy about the game on Monday night,” he said. “But not being able to do that, it teaches you a lot.”
He said the lack of men forces him to interact with girls.
“You really learn to respect them,” he said.
Cating knew he would major in education when he was in 10th grade and decided he wanted to become a youth minister.
“I just know that what I’ve learned here is going to help me so much,” he said.
When Mulligan chose to major in education, some of his friends thought it was comical.
“But, when they see me work with kids, they know it’s what I’m supposed to be doing,” he said.
Moore decided to become a teacher because of his mother, who was also a teacher. He also said he has been fortunate enough to have had many male teachers to whom he has truly looked up.
“That’s why I want to be teacher,” he said. “As a male, you may serve as a father-figure or a big brother to a child who has neither.”
Good intentions aside, the boys are still sometimes looked down upon for taking “the easy way out.”
“My roommate is an engineering major,” Cating said. “He’ll come home from a calculus class and I’ll be sitting on the couch reading a children’s fiction book. That’s when I really get it.”
Cating says the classwork may seem easy compared to classes like physics and accounting (last semester, he took a finger-painting class), but his classes are challenging in a different way.
“At the end of a day of student teaching, I am physically exhausted,” he said. “You just give so much of yourself. The kids have so much energy, and you have to match it.”
Catherine Irion, an elementary education junior, said most of her favorite teachers have been male.
“That’s why I appreciate having the guys in my classes,” she said. “They have such a great perspective; I know that they’ll make great teachers.”
Cating said girls like Irion have added a lot to his experience.
“A lot of them take care of us,” he said. “They are very motherly.”
Cating, Mulligan and Moore are satisfied with their decision to pursue a degree in education, despite the trials that may accompany it.
“I saw an old friend of mine last month,” Cating said. “He asked what I was studying. When I told him education, he looked at me like ‘what a waste of a mind.’ But you know, you just have to do what you love, no matter what anyone else says.”
Moore said he remembers to stay focused.
“You just have to think about what you want to do, not what others want you to do,” Moore said. “You have to listen to your heart.”