Jake Minton – Men & Children: The Final Frontier for Feminism – TEDxSMU 2015
Men make up less than three percent of Preschool and Kindergarten teachers in the U.S., a number that hasn’t budged for at least 15 years. That isn’t just bad news for the men who would be great at this job. It’s bad for anyone who wants gender equality in any other field. Kindergarten teacher Jake Minton talks about why the early childhood classroom is an important front in the fight for feminism, why it matters for everyone, and what we can all do to help.
Like many men in his field, Jake Minton took a circuitous route to early childhood education. A former actor and published playwright, Jake has a degree in theatre from Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts and is a company member at large with The House Theatre of Chicago. He’s been a nanny (don’t you dare say “manny”!), stay-at-home-dad, daycare provider and preschool teacher, and now teaches Kindergarten at St. John’s Episcopal School in Dallas. His wife teaches science and math to third graders, and his two daughters love super heroes, princesses, astronauts, fairies, dinosaurs, mermaids, modern dance, and Mars. Jake runs the Facebook group “Rasing Kids Without Bias.”