The daily whinge

You reap what you sow
Sue Thorne, Head of Early Childhood Council, bemoans dearth of males teaching pre-schoolers. Men comprise less than 1% of childcare workers. I agree with Ms Thorne that the paedophile hysteria (which still hasn't subsided) is a disincentive for would-be male teachers. But then again: so what?

"With few men in our primary schools and fewer in childcare centres we have created a society in which we have quarantined our children from our men."

How ridiculous! Schools are not 'society'. When kids leave their socialist indoctrination gulags each day, they interact with men: fathers, neighbours, shopkeepers, coaches, etc. They will always have exposure to men (unless they live in Auckland, where those mincing, lisping powder-puff Jafas can not, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered 'men'). If pre-schoolers stay at home rather than attend childcare, it's usually with mum while dad works. Do these children, 'quarantined' from men, grow up maladjusted?

If early childcare centres weren't bastions of the most oppressive, invasive, obnoxious PC engineering (no war games, no competition, no rough and tumble, no vigorous activity, no play dough, nothing that might upset any prickly hypersensitive minority groups), then perhaps the industry might attract Normal People rather than the usual warped caboodle of sappy, liberal misfits.

'There was a time, only a few years ago, when few doctors, lawyers or journalists were women, but we changed that' she said."

That's because women, themselves, actively sought these esteemed careers (maybe not journalism). They coveted prestigious and rewarding occupations - unlike early childcare, which is low paid & low status work. Not only that, it's hard yakka, demanding not just specialist training but also a prerequisite aptitude; a sensitive nature, an affinity with children, and the patience of Job. Most men, I submit, are neither suitable nor interested in the job.

Notice how Ms Thorne only values 'gentle, nurturing' men, which not only rules out huge chunks of the male population, but also betrays her fluffy, rosy, estrogen-soaked vision of gender utopia: women who behave like women and men who behave like women. Today's educators - more obsessed with social equity than literacy or developing minds capable of logic thought - want all our children brought up like girls: docile, passive, compliant.

So who cares if early childhood education feminists are bleating about inequality? Unless your hung up on statistical parity & quotas, who cares if men dominate certain professions (military, firefighters, foresty) and women others (nursing, social work, floristry) while yet others have mixed proportions? In case Ms Thorne hasn't noticed, both men & women in NZ are FREE to choose and pursue their own livelihoods. The fact that gender is not evenly distributed among all professions, despite the prolonged concerted efforts of misguided myopic gender activists, just means that the feminists got it wrong. Indeed, the same social architects who toyed, fiddled & tinkered with our education system are ultimately left wallowing in their very own muddied puddle they created.