Goodbye Mr. Chips

The Boston Globe has an article today on the search in Massachusetts – and probably around the country – for more male teachers. It's your standard quest for an inspirational "Dead Poets Society" guy until you get to this modern-day roadbump:

Yet the shrinking number of men can be chalked up to another reason: Some men worry that overly protective parents might falsely accuse them of being pedophiles because teaching, especially in the lower grades, is still largely perceived as a woman's job, requiring a nurturing personality that supposedly is not common among men. In other words, something must be wrong with the guy who likes working with children.

I can't find the link right now but I distinctly remember a John Stossel special called "What would you do?" (or something). In one particular show, the ABC crew staged a situation where a young child was crying on the street to see if anybody would stop to help the distressed kid. A lot of people passed by but, overwhelmingly, those who did were female. Depressingly, one reason suggested why more men didn't stop to help is they're afraid of being accused as sex offenders. Which is sad.