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Re: [Phys-L] criticising teach for america



In the early 2000's my old inner city district had many TFA people doing their two year assignments in various schools as science teachers. Some stayed for the full two years then they left; others stayed one year only; a very few remained for three or four years under regular contract. The turn-over rate was more or less under control and they could find new teachers fairly easily in September. In 2008 I had been teaching in my present position part-time for eight years. That August I received a call from my friend who was the science supervisor for the city. Was I interested in returning to full time teaching in any one of eight openings? I asked him what was going on that they had that many openings. It turned out that only two of the openings were retirements or full timers leaving. The other six openings were due to TFA people leaving after their two year assignments! (It turned out I couldn't return without jeopardizing my pension and health benefits so I never took him up on the offer.)

TFA may have started out with noble aspirations, but now it has become an albatross around the necks of many districts such as mine. Their teachers have little training, and even less loyalty to the places that hired them. It's worse than the military in the Vietnam era... do your two years then get out alive. For TFA it's Do your time then find a better paying job with less hassle than teaching. Banking, law school, hedge fund managers... anything is better to these people than staying with kids that really need them! What does that say about their goals? Teaching is only a detour in life's real calling. Worse... what does it say about our chosen profession? That it is a lesser choice and only suitable for a short time while you look for something "better." The sad thing is that I'd bet some of these TFAers now go around saying how great they were and how they loved teaching and kids. Well, if they loved it so much why didn't they stay?

On Oct 30, 2014, at 7:55 PM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

This Is What Happens When You Criticize Teach for America | The Nation


http://www.thenation.com/article/186481/what-happens-when-you-criticize-teach-america

bc
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