Haven't read past the first post; will go back later. I'm a male preschool teacher. I'm also a bilingual preschool teacher, and am not Latino, which brings another bowl of fun into the mix. I love the kids and love teaching; that's never been the issue. There are definitely additional challenges. Most of them are due to the prejudices of the female staff; there's lots of talk about how we need more males in ECE, etc, but there's still often a general feeling that male teachers can't understand or nurture children as much as female ones. Similarly, neither I nor any of the other male teachers or assistants go in the female student bathroom, even though a.) we pass the same background checks as the female staff, b.) we're allowed without question in the male student bathroom, and c.) female staff are allowed unquestioned in both gender bathrooms.
I don't think there's any actual written policy against this, and I or any male staff member could probably bring a lawsuit against the district to get this changed, but you can imagine the ugliness that would surface in that (Why does Mr. Tobitonic want to get into the girls' bathroom so much? What's wrong with him? Etc). The funny thing about this is that the private daycare / childcare centers were usually far more progressive about this; there were group bathrooms and even though the majority of staff were female, there were never any unwritten rules about who could help who in the bathroom. So it's quite possible this sillyness varies from district to district and probably building to building.
Other examples of sillyness include the amount of heat I got for taking my kids out in 25 degree weather this winter, despite that being the district policy that *every* teacher is supposed to be following. Both parents and fellow staff complained about it, but I kept doing it, because kids benefit in so many ways from being outdoors year round. Ideally, this is something teachers would know, seeing as we're supposed to be advocates for dev. appropriate education. However, dev. appopriate practices are a passion of mine, and it's not necessarily one for every teacher (or perhaps most). Most of the teachers don't take their kids out below 45 or 50 degrees.
But yes, it's a public school job, and there's no question of classes being filled or nonsense like that; there are more kids than spaces. You just need to be passionate about what you're doing and have a thick skin. I love preschoolers, and there isn't a job in the world I'd rather be doing, which is a big part of why I'm teaching despite making much more money from running an educational blog. I know I make a difference in the lives of my kids every day I show up, and it's very meaningful work.
