If you have not yet seen the May 2010 issue of Young Children you are missing an issue devoted to men working with our youngest learners.   This issue contents include a wide range of topics related to men in the field including resources, advocating for gender diversity in the workforce, recruiting and retaining males in teacher preparation programs, and men in children’s literature.

For me it is very exciting to see an entire issue that goes to a broad membership organization about the role of males in early childhood education including “Male Voices in Early Childhood Education” an article that captures individual male educator’s voice. 
 
These are topics that I often recall from my own experience and have curiosity to learn more from other males in the field including: what leads to male interest in the field, what opened the door to enter the field, mentoring, advice, and encouragement for more men to enter the field. 
 
“Men in your Teacher Preparation Program” highlights five strategies recruit and retain men:
1)      Have men work with children immediately
2)      Provide a mentor
3)      Facilitate a support group
4)      Offer men a scholarship or stipend
5)      Adapt the programs to be welcoming to men
 
I agree these are important elements for a teacher preparation program to welcome and retain men these are concepts that transcend into practice in the field which often can occur before education. 
 
I feel privileged to be part of this profession and I often recollect on how close I was to not taking the chance to at least experience what early childhood had to offer.   “Don’t be afraid to consider early childhood field” are words that were never expressed to me by another individual and made me decision seem all the more difficult at the time.
 
I was lucky that my first application for a child care center was for a center that was open minded to adapting their program to be welcoming to a male in the classroom, had me working with children immediately, and my director was supportive from day one and was my first early childhood mentor.  Had I applied at another facility that was not so open minded and willing to adapt I may not have applied to another opportunity, or found myself on my current professional path.  While I did not have access to additional financial incentives my first experiences in this field keep me motivated to this day, and a support group would have been a good sounding board and something I would encourage for any individual in our field.
 
Take a few minutes to check this out, share with the men in the field that you know, and with those who share the desire to see more men in the early childhood workforce. 

Jeremy Reuter is the Director of the Head Start Collaboration Office