February 20th, 2025

Dear Readers,

An epidemic has been quietly imploding our nation, and it’s been happening for decades.

Men.

They’re destroying the very fabric of our country.

What are they doing exactly?

Nothing.

​They aren’t doing anything.

“What the hell is this guy talking about?”

A question you’re (probably) asking yourself right now.

The first issue I’d like to point out is absentee fathers. A touchy subject for many, but it’s an unfortunate reality of the modern world.

As of 2022, approximately 18.3 million children in the United States grow up without a father.

This absence has profound consequences on their well-being. Children in fatherless homes are four times more likely to live in poverty compared to those with married parents.

They also face higher risks of mental health and behavioral problems, with studies showing they are twice as likely to suffer from such issues. Additionally, 60% of youth suicides come from fatherless homes, and around 70% of youth in state-operated facilities come from single-parent households.

This highlights the profound impact that fathers have on their families.

​So, the epidemic isn’t men, as much as it’s their laziness and unwillingness to take responsibility for their actions.

In a much more broad sense, it shows the effect that men could and can have on their communities.

This leads me to the main point I’d like to make today.

Men in Schools.

For whatever reason, there’s a stigma around men working in schools.

Either that they are somewhat effeminate or are only interested in coaching and not willing to put the time in otherwise. Because of this stigma (that may or may not be true in some small sense), many intelligent men are driven away from education because they believe that education has nothing to offer them or even nothing to offer to society.

Instead, they choose other (often higher-paying) jobs like engineer, accountant, financial analyst, pilot, or architect.

Not only do these jobs pay substantially more than teaching in a public or private school, but they offer the chance at prestige, something teaching does not.

Nobody cares about teachers until they’ve done something wrong. Rarely are they praised for their greatness.

No wonder men aren’t becoming teachers.

Men, specifically young men, want and perhaps need some level of praise regarding their decisions and outcomes.

Teaching does not provide that.

Often, teachers are blamed for all of society's problems but never the possible solutions.

Men are part of the solution to this problem.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, men comprise about 23% of public school teachers overall, with 20% in elementary and middle schools and 28% at the high school level. In higher education, men represent approximately 42% of full-time faculty, with higher percentages in fields like engineering and business.

These figures highlight the underrepresentation of men in education, particularly at the elementary and middle school levels.

With more men in our nation's schools, more young boys and girls could experience a good role model that so many of them are missing in their lives.

While this won’t fix the problems of education altogether, it will do more than place a bandaid over it.