A recent article in the New York Times observed that there
has been a decline in applications in the Teach for America program. What
started out as Wendy Kopp’s senior thesis while at Princeton University
blossomed into a major service minded
effort to get college graduates who were
not trained to be teachers nor not initially interested in the teaching
profession, to sign on for a two year commitment to teach in some of America’s
poorest schools. The responses to the
Times article were as diverse as the recruits who answered Kopp’s call.
A former principal observed that he only recruited Teach for
America recruits as a last resort. Two years is not nearly enough time to train
a teacher. It seems that if a school wants to invest in a successful classroom teacher,
the teacher must make a commitment to get on board for the long term.
Another respondent noted that Teach for America matches new teachers
with children who really need the most skilled and experienced ones. This could be a recipe
for disaster. She believed that such a program is endemic of the fact that teachers
are not respected in the United States. In any other profession, who would
insert a person into a complex situation with no skills in that occupation?
Anybody cannot be a teacher!
One letter did note that Teacher for America has been a successful
program and that many recruits did decide to make teaching a career.
Finally, one letter writer observed that Teach for America
has become too large, impersonal and more “corporate.”
The jury is still out. What remains is the fact that this
country needs both qualified as well as dedicated teachers to face the challenges
of teaching children in this century.
c.2015 . J. Margolis
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