Our thanks to a longstanding supporter, Doris, for suggesting a new ‘Whiny Woman of the Month’ award winner, Professor Jennifer Coates.
Decade after decade the proportion of teachers who are women has risen, and standards in the state education system have slumped, hidden only by relentless ‘grade inflation’. Between 1970 and 2010 the proportion of primary school teachers who are women rose from 77.4% to 87.4%. Over the same period the proportion in secondary schools rose from 45.4% to 62.3%. We published an article on the feminisation of the education system (and the NHS), scroll down to the one dated 4 October 2013 accessible through this link:
http://www.avoiceformen.com/author/mikebuchanan1957/
When the majority of teachers were men, there was no need for ‘teaching assistants’ because the men were more capable of maintaining discipline. As in other areas run by the state – the NHS is an obvious example – the result has been lower standards delivered at higher cost to taxpayers. The state education system fails boys so badly that today only 40% of university students are male. There’s a lot to complain about in the state education system. So what does a professor at the University of Roehampton complain about?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27403902
From the article:
Professor Jennifer Coates, emeritus professor of English language and linguistics at the University of Roehampton, said she had been surprised by the different titles given to male and female teachers.
“I didn’t think there was this awful disparity between professorial status and these young teachers, but they’re all Sir and I’m not. It’s a depressing example of how women are given low status and men, no matter how young or new in the job they are, are given high status.”
No, what ‘it’s a depressing example of…’ is a woman whining about something of not the slightest consequence. Professor Coates is a worthy winner of this month’s ‘Whiny Woman of the Month’ award. Her award certificate:
140514 Professor Jennifer Coates, Whiny Woman of the Month, May 2014
Agreed – and that’s why she won the award.
Sir and Miss are courtesy titles when used by schoolchildren. The equivalents among adults are Sir and Madam and should be used as polite forms of address. In no way do any of these titles imply that the woman is of lower standing than the man.