For me, the article was uplifting. It was a reminder that I am one of the lucky few who got chosen in 2009 and remain incredibly fortunate to be working with amazing scholars. As I plan for the upcoming year, I am energized at just the thought of the kinds of things that can happen in my room and that I will make sure do happen. The goal? Making sure I open my students to the endless possibilities their lives hold. We will have three words that will guide our mindsets this year: choice, opportunity, and readiness. We will recognize these as just some of the values that education brings us.
I then happened across some letters to the editor that landed at the New York Times in response to the article. Thankfully, some alums and advocates shared some of my feelings about the impact of TFA and the movement we are all a part of to change education in America. Then, there were the expected naysayers who think (my words) that TFA is fluff and ineffective.
I am normally able to brush off such talk, because I KNOW what TFA is, what it does, and how important it is. I don't think TFA is the ultimate answer to education reform and I work with amazing teachers that found different paths into the classroom. What I KNOW is that TFA is successful at supporting effective teachers and, regardless of our backgrounds, focusing our energies on our nation's greatest injustice so that together, we can solve it. Even though it brings "non-traditional" teachers into the classroom, it shares the goal of any teacher, school of education, state legislature, and school district: that all children learn.
You will note from the letters to the editor that the naysayers have some common arguments against TFA (my words, paraphrased based on my reading of the letters):
1. It's a revolving door and Corps Members do not remain committed to the classroom
2. It is a resume builder for Ivy League, trust-fund babies
3. It puts inexperienced teachers in front of kids who need effective teachers
While trying to maintain my cool, I want to address these three basic arguments.
1. The statistics do bear out that most Corps Members do not stay in the classroom after their 2 years. If they do stay in teaching, many go on to other schools or communities. It's a good point to bring up in regard to the sustainability of the reform when the leaders leave. Here's my take:
I will probably stay a third year here in Tulsa, but I can't guarantee a fourth. I also cannot make any promises that during what would be my fourth year that I will be a teacher. WAIT, I am admitting that I am giving up the core of TFA: classroom teacher. If I'm not on the ground, with kids, in a classroom, how am I going to contribute to the movement to make sure those kids, in that classroom, get the best education possible?! Sighs.
The movement to change education in America is not limited, nor should it be. It has to be more than teachers. HAS TO BE. We need movers and shakers as school administrators, school founders, school board members and policy makers. Our problems aren't just in our schools, and so many of the problems we see in underserved communities result in the problems we face in schools. In that vein, we need impoverished communities to find advocates in lawyers, doctors, business people, and in nonprofit leaders.
As a TFA corps member, I already feel my life is profoundly changed by my experience with this organization and because of my students. I will never look at my world without thinking about its connections to education, nor will I look at any problem in whatever my station in life without thinking about what I learned here that can help me solve it. My lens will always be clouded by my experience in the classroom.
So, maybe in that fourth year I will be a graduate student working on a degree in public service or policy, and focusing my studies on education reform. I may be on a school board or writing as an education reporter for a local newspaper. Who knows? Regardless, I will be influenced by my experience in the classroom and whatever I do, I will make sure it will somehow better the system that still teaches my kids. Our kids.
Were all of the people who influenced the Civil Rights movement in America just like MLK, Jr.? Were they just preachers and philosophers? No, they were also policy makers, teachers, business people and just regular citizens. Movements this broad need comprehensive perspectives and contributions from across the board.
2. I know that TFA will look great on my resume. When I joined the corps in 2009, it was considered the 7th best place to start a career by BusinessWeek. Ahead of TFA on the list were big financial firms as well as the US State Department. Not bad company. TFA also has corporate partnerships that connect corps members with corporate jobs after their commitment. It also begets an AmeriCorps education grant that can be used toward any graduate degree for up to 5 years after it is received. Great perks that definitely help in figuring the real world out and finding a career path.
One NYTimes reader noted, "Teach for America, begun on noble principles, is now just a way station for wealthy kids before they become lawyers and such. These youngsters inexpertly fumble in our nation’s most at-risk classrooms for two or three years, pat themselves on the back, then bring their Harvard diplomas to the nearest M.B.A. mill. Few are truly interested in careers as teachers."
Here is where I take issue.
I am not wealthy. My family is not wealthy. The reason I made it to the private college I went to (which, by no means, is Ivy League, but definitely elite), is because I had an incredible scholarship. The Daniels Fund met the financial needs my mom and I couldn't meet with our personal funds, other scholarships and grants, or work. I earned the scholarship by completing a one year prep program, a rigorous application process, showing evidence of leadership and community service and meeting a big requirement: that my mom made under a certain amount of money. We were a single-income household that wouldn't have been able to support a state-school college education, much less a private degree. To maintain that scholarship, I had to work part-time in college and continue to work in my community.
So, no, I'm not wealthy. I worked hard and I got some amazing opportunities that I also worked hard to maintain. I also didn't go to Harvard, but I got the education I wanted at a fine institution that I am proud of. I also have no intention to get an MBA, and as discussed earlier, while I may not be a teacher 20 years from now, I will ensure that my work constantly benefits classrooms and kids.
3. I will admit that I am fumbling through my job in some respects, much of which is because the learning curve is enormous. It is, I expect, for any first year teacher, especially in a high poverty school. However, I don't think that that negatively affects my classroom or my kids, as I will explain below.
Another NYTimes reader said,
"While Teach for America has regularly qualified for federal noncompetitive grants, cash-strapped school districts across the country are being forced into competition for grants from the Race to the Top program...It pains me, as an urban educator who takes my job seriously, to see a rookie teaching force of temporary, inexpensive and inexperienced educators promoted as the model for staffing urban schools."
While yet another noted,
"Would you allow a freshly minted college graduate with five weeks of training to fill your cavity? To fix a plumbing leak? To cut your hair? How about allowing that 22-year-old graduate to teach your son or daughter how to read?
Your article trumpets Teach for America’s exclusivity, but does not candidly acknowledge the irresponsibility of what the organization actually does: place the least qualified, least experienced and least knowledgeable teachers in classrooms filled with students who need the most help.
Tellingly, Teach for America instructors are only a “chosen few” for kids in failing, poor and usually urban schools. No one chooses Teach for America instructors for more affluent suburban schools, nor should they."
I had five weeks of training in the classroom before coming to my own in Tulsa. I took a crash course in education at that point, and continued hours of professional development throughout my first year of teaching to learn all I could about the art of teaching. No, it's not a degree in education, and one may argue to little for such a big job.
But, let's be clear. TFA isn't just putting anybody in front of kids. Picking among 35,000 applicants during my entrance year, they picked the best of the best, with college degrees, from around the country. Beyond that, we all must be certified to teach through our program. That's right, we still need to go through the certification hoops. We are certified. And, I might point out that, besides the TFA teachers at my school, a handful of our 40+ person faculty is alternatively certified, meaning they also took non-traditional paths to teaching.
I guess we are all terrible human beings for wanting to teach kids how to read. Really?! No, we are all passionate, love our kids, and want to be there. Even on my roughest day, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I don't have the degree, but I do have training and a willingness to continuously make myself better for my kids.
Even without my fancy education degree or student teaching experience, I won't be shy in saying that my students made amazing gains with me during my first, trial by fire, year. I turned reluctant readers into confident ones, saw a class master over 80 percent of their above-grade level material, and my other classes grow 30-40 percent over the course of the year with their on-and-above-grade level material. They grew beyond anyone's expectations and saw success in areas they thought they could only fail at. They also happened to have the highest reading scores for our school on district benchmarks throughout the year. All of this happened while some of my counterparts, with more experience in education, lowered expectations and taught below-grade level material. This year, I maintain my ambitious goals and bring even more experience to see my students go even farther. I am not a perfect educator, but I work my tail off to get the job done as best I can. That best was good enough in some ways this past year year but I plan to be even better this upcoming year.
And why don't TFAers get "chosen" for more affluent suburban school districts? Well, let's be real: TFA's mission is to make sure all children in this country attain an excellent education. We don't often hear of affluent, suburban schools receiving less than an excellent education. We also don't hear about middle class white kids being taught below-grade level material or affluent white kids not having open paths to colleges. Why do you think that is? Maybe because those are problems that students of privilege don't face, at least at the rate students in low socio-economic communities do. TFA doesn't need to bring effective teachers to privileged schools. Those schools have what they need. It's the schools that don't, the schools we do teach in, in urban and rural areas, that "choose" us because we want to fill that need. We aren't qualified in the traditional sense, but we make gains, we change lives, and we make sure our non-affluent kids get the same opportunities their counterparts in those suburban schools do. When injustice is happening, do we send people to fix what is already fair? No, we fight to correct the injustice by serving those who are unjustly treated.
And, just a tangent that my alternatively certified high school history teacher mentioned once: What do you call the guy who comes last in his class out of med school? Doctor.
I teach for America because I believe in my kids and I believe they deserve better. I am becoming a better person because I know them and I will work hard to ensure they get all they need and deserve out of their education. I will also make sure that when I am not their teacher, they are self-confident, capable, and willing to take on challenges to continue achieving. I also know that when I am no longer a teacher, I will still serve them, their classmates, and all children who are in need of the best education. That is why I Teach or America.
~MJ
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