blog-3 Cultural Image of teacher

It seems that the American image of “teacher” closely resembles that of “mother”.  The image of teacher is young 25-35, pretty (not a knock-out), soft, warm, inviting, and conservative.  Teachers are often portrayed as nurturing, altruistic, and virtuous.  “Teacher” is usually defined as a white woman teaching elementary aged students.  The negative alternative stereotype of an angry, domineering teacher is more often paired with older students.  Few women of diverse ethnic or racial backgrounds are depicted.  Men are less often portrayed as teacher than are women.  For those men that are part of the public image, usually they are math and science teachers of high school students.  They are often viewed as the “leader” role in front of the class.
The interesting thing that I found during this collage work is how often our image of ourselves as “teacher” falls into these stereotypical images shown in the collages.  Most of the women’s “portrait of a teacher” drawings were of smiley, long haired, slender women. Only one woman defined her self as a science teacher.  The men’s portraits had echoes of the cultural ideal of the “man teacher”.  Two of the three men clearly defined themselves as math and science teachers.  The “man teacher” was the hoarder of space in the picture (think back to non-verbal communication and gender roles), where as the women were often depicted as a part of the class room space. 
I have to agree, that the stereotypes are here for a reason.  We seem to self-select teachers and ourselves to fulfill these roles.  I had to question myself as to how comfortable I am in supporting this stereotype.  I did not want to be a teacher when I was younger as I felt that it was too much of a women’s slot job.  I was not willing to assume a “mother” role as a career.  I wonder if these strong societal stereotypes keep others from seeking out a career in teaching.  Would more men feel comfortable teaching in elementary schools if it was portrayed as a “man’s job”?  Would more children that are minorities want to grow up to be a teacher if they could see themselves in the role through cultural images?