Public education is being forever derided for its shortfalls, but the voices of discontent are largely overlooking one unsettling trend in public education: About 80 percent of America’s teachers are female.

Does this really constitute a crisis? To many, it would seem unlikely that a teacher’s gender would affect students academically. One plus one equals two, no matter who teaches it, right? A recent study performed by Thomas S. Dee, an economist at Swarthmore College, indicates otherwise.

Dee discussed his findings in the fall issue of Education Next. “Learning from a teacher of the opposite gender has a detrimental effect on students’ academic progress,” he wrote. “My best estimate is that it lowers test scores for both boys and girls by approximately 4 percent of a standard deviation and has even larger effects on various measures of student engagement” (2006, No. 4).

Dee then highlighted the impact on America’s boys. “Adverse gender effects have an impact on both boys and girls, but that effect falls more heavily on the male half of the population in middle school, simply because most middle-school teachers are female” (ibid.).

Further on, Dee stated, “Similarly, these results suggest that part of boys’ relative propensity to be seen as disruptive in these grades is due to the gender interactions resulting from the preponderance of female teachers.”

This study revealed that boys learn less when they are instructed by female teachers. This is a sobering find in light of the fact that only one out of five teachers in America’s schools is male.

But the role of men in our education system lies beyond just their academic impact. Their role as examples and role models of manhood and masculinity is also critical, particularly for young boys. Though they have consistently been outnumbered by female teachers, male teachers and administrators make a unique and profound impact on a school and its students. The firm presence of mature men is critical to the rounded development and maturity of all students, especially boys.

I think back to my own experience. My physical education teacher, for example, was a fine example of what it meant to be brawny, athletically competent and physically vibrant. His example inspired more than a few teenage boys to shed boyish flab in pursuit of more masculine traits such as physical strength, vivacious health and a spirit of healthy competition.

Tall and foreboding, the male principal of my high school was also a much-needed asset. An austere and serious man, he commanded the respect of even the most boisterous troublemaker. An enemy of few, friend and confidant of most, his deep voice of stability and experience empowered the dispirited and gave direction to the misguided. Masculinity means service and sacrifice, encouragement and affability—and this man was an example in all those respects.

Real masculinity also includes discipline, resilience, ambition, authority, the courage to confront adversity, as well as the ability to act decisively and forcefully when conditions warrant. My male teachers were the most adept at teaching these qualities by their example. I remember more than a few occasions where a fraught temp teacher hurriedly recruited the assistance of a battle-hardened and bearded, 225-pound colleague to quiet an unruly classroom.

It would be misguided to consider male teachers markedly more important than female teachers to the education of children and teens. They are not. But it would be just as misguided to dismiss them as being markedly less important than female teachers. They are not.

The inherent differences between men and women mean that male teachers provide leadership and education in areas that female teachers are generally weaker in, while female teachers excel in the areas that men are generally weaker in. A balanced education supplies young students with a healthy dose of influence from both men and women.

This is why we need to be concerned about the void of male teachers and principals at our schools. The current ratio of four women teachers per male teacher is the lowest in 40 years.

What this statistic means is that hundreds of thousands of America’s boys and girls are missing out on essential elements of education. Sadly, America’s boys are being impacted the most. They are losing one of their greatest and most important role models—the male teacher.

Male teachers, according to Talladega, Ala., city schools superintendent Lee Messer, are critically important “as role models for male students, especially in the younger grades, because of single[-parent] families and the lack of role models in families.” Growing boys, naturally, learn about manhood from the men in their lives. Even many female teachers, though they are pleased by the surge of women principals, are worried by the lack of male teachers.

Combine the fact that school faculties are overwhelmingly comprised of women with the fact that a 40 percent divorce rate has robbed many homes of full-time fathers, and the result is that thousands of children now have little to no male influence in their lives. Too many children, particularly boys, are growing up without the example provided by the presence of a man. Without a stable, balanced man in their lives, countless boys are growing up with a narrow, media-designed, shallow definition of what they are to become, how they are to act, and what their role in society is.

Never in history has there been such a drastic void of stable, masculine role models.

Correcting this problem is not about ensuring a 50-50 ratio of male to female teachers in American schools, but rather in taking steps to ensure there are enough strong men in our schools to impact our children. This would mean reversing the current trend and encouraging men back into the teaching field to be the masculine role models and examples students need.