male teacher for a 7 yr old girl?

amother

Tue, May 14 2013, 12:14 am

Hello everyone, expert advice needed please,

I'm thinking of moving to a small town where the school is modern orth, coed class, and the teacher that would be teaching the Judaics of that age is a Frum Rabbi. Would you put your 7 yr old girl into such a class?

thank you in advance

notshanarishona

Tue, May 14 2013, 12:53 am

I wouldn't put my 7 year old in a co ed class but I think if its a co ed class it makes just as much sense to have a male teacher as a female teacher.
In general, I don't have a problem with male teachers for girls as long as you are familiar with the teacher and there is adequate supervision that he is not doing / saying anything inappropriate.

RachelEve14

Tue, May 14 2013, 1:15 am

My girls go to an all girls Torani school and they each have a few Rabbiam as teachers, plus there is one class taught by "HaMoreh Moshe" so at least one regular male teacher. I think there is nothing specifically wrong with a male, it is more a question if the haskafa lines up in general with what you want.

shabri

Tue, May 14 2013, 1:56 am

I had a rabbi in second grade. Rabbi Hyman. He was legendary, a tzadik. Taught second grade in HALB for many many years. Coed school but separate classes. He taught girls in the morning and oys in the afternoon. I still remember him and went to his levaya when he was niftar when I was in high school or college.

Tablepoetry

Tue, May 14 2013, 2:49 am

Ummm, yes, I never even thought about it. My girls all had/have some male teachers, not all of them rabbanim. Never ever thought it was problematic. In fact, I thought that's the natural order of things.

etky

Tue, May 14 2013, 3:37 am

Tablepoetry wrote:

This.
It was the natural order of things in my MO yeshiva in the States when I was growing up too- even when the classes were separated for limudei Kodesh from 6th -8th grade. (We're not talking homeroom teachers of course).
Here in my kids mamad this is also the case. My 6th grade DD has a male Mishna teacher this year (not a rav), for example. In high schools there are male teachers for the girls too. I think this is par for the course in the MO world.

Isramom8

Tue, May 14 2013, 5:49 am

Why is this a question? I've had male teachers in MO and BY schools from elementary though second year seminary. My daughter in third year seminary in Israel is taught by a few rabbanim. (Her BY high school in Bnei Brak had only morot, though.)

I've heard the idea that halacha should be taught preferably by an actual rav posek.

amother

Tue, May 14 2013, 7:27 am

I don't understand this at all. you are ok with putting her in a coed class but not with her having a male teacher?

signed,
someone who was in coed school through 6th grade

Frumdoc

Tue, May 14 2013, 7:42 am

I had male rebbe teachers throughout high school, and, thinking about it, had male secular teachers a s well, for an all girls school which was MO. Europe, not U.S. Never a problem for most people, but most of us were expecting to go out into the world and interact with the non female half of the population at some point.

What exactly is the issue? Inappropriate behaviour by the kids, or the possibility of it from the teacher? Surely you have to trust a teacher at some point, after the checks have been made, and female teachers could be just as risky as male ones from an abuse point of view (think about it). More stories about female teachers running of with male students in the news than the other way round. Although obviously CVS anything like that should ever happen in your school.

From a crush POV, if a teenage girl is going to have a crush on a male role model, it will happen, and it might be better to have it on a teacher who is well aware and prepared to deal with such things (it is very very common), than on someone outside who may not handle it well at all.

Isramom8

Tue, May 14 2013, 8:01 am

Teacher crushes don't start that young; they start around 5th or 6th grade.

In my MO elementary school, interactions between male teachers and female students were always appropriate. Interactions between male and female students, not so much.

Rubber Ducky

Tue, May 14 2013, 8:23 am

Coed classes with male teachers for lower elementary students are common and accepted in smaller schools where there simply aren't enough kids to support separate classes.

granolamom

Tue, May 14 2013, 8:35 am

shabri wrote:

Rabbi Hyman was legendary. I knew him personally. And his family. Wonderful people. I was in sem when he was niftar, I went to the kevura.

granolamom

Tue, May 14 2013, 8:40 am

when I was in first grade (in TAG) we had a rebbe. he was great, I feel lucky that I had him. he told great stories and jokes, created beautiful calendars and worksheets, pulled loose teeth, gave out 'kochavim' for good behavior to trade in for prizes at the rosh chodesh 'store', and the crazy thing is that kids used to sit on his lap now and then. afaik, nothing inappropriate went on, kids related to him as a 'zeidy' figure. He taught at TAG for a long time.

amother

Tue, May 14 2013, 11:50 am

I went to a coed (Jewish) school up until I was 18. We were taught Jewish studies by male teachers all the way through in our classes. Is it because of her age that it is disturbing for you. you think he might be a PD?