I can’t say exactly how the joke went, something about male teachers and how they either proved or disproved the existence of gay people in Korea. The translation broke down somewhere between the words “teacher” and “gay.”

As a male teacher from the U.S. it’s nothing new to be the minority in my profession. However, as gender roles seem to ebb and flow in the general direction of equality around the world, South Korea has seen a drastic drop in the number of male elementary school teachers.
Via Korea Beat:

“These days it’s not easy to find a male elementary school teacher. It has finally gotten to the point where some schools have no male teachers at all…This school with, 860 students, has precisely one male teacher. That one is in charge of curricula, so there are 28 female homeroom teachers from first through sixth grade.”

The article goes on to state that female teachers are worried that they might not be able to control the rowdy behavior of some of their male students. A year ago I would have argued that a good teacher could control their students regardless of gender. Then I came to Korea.

A combination of gender roles and a school system that still utilizes minimal forms of corporal punishment as a means of classroom management has created an atmosphere among many classrooms in which “might makes right.”

At the school I teach at, a sixth grade boy last year, more fully developed than many of his classmates, threatened to beat up his docile female teacher because she punished him. He was moved to a classroom led by a male. While his behavioral problems persisted, they did so more often outside the classroom.

I, myself, had seen little behavioral problems from this student when he was in my classroom. He didn’t pay attention to the lesson very often, but beyond that he didn’t do much of anything. I was told that it was because I was a male. He was an inch taller than me.

To combat this student many of the female teachers were seen carrying around thing sticks about 18 inches in length. They told me they did not use the sticks at all, but felt safer with it by their side. After the boy graduated most of those teachers stopped carrying the sticks.

This is an extreme example to be sure. Teachers who have been teaching for years told me they never saw a student inspire this sort of reaction. However, the lesson remains the same. While in most places a positive adult male role model is crucial to the social and cultural development of a boy, in other places it’s potentially crucial to the basic safety of those attending the school.