Week 8 Folder: Diamond & Miner

“Our ideas of how to teach come mostly from a five-week summer training institute that promises to give new recruits the tools they will need to be successful teachers.”

(Diamond P.1)

This to me is laughable and I’m not a teacher yet, I can only imagine what a certified veteran teacher thinks of this statement. It takes four years of college to get state certified plus a masters and at least five years of teaching before becoming a master teacher. TFA is not a solution for failing schools in poor areas, to me it seems like they are using the misfortune to profit in terms of their career and wallets.  

“These sessions seemed designed to prepare a mostly privileged and 70 percent white group of teachers for communities that are starkly different from their own experience. (According to the TFA website, 90 percent of the students of TFA teachers are low income African Americans and Latinos.)” (Diamond P.5)

This to me is so bad, how is ANYONE supposed to make a difference in two years when they don’t know anything about the community and student body. After two years I would imagine that a teacher would only begin to understand these things and then be able to alter their teaching style accordingly. Two years is just enough time to do nothing, accept make some money in a bad market and a great résumé builder.

“As TFA founder Kopp writes in her memoir, from the very beginning she was “baffled” at the idea that “teachers, just like doctors and lawyers, needed to be trained in campus-based graduate programs before entering the classroom. . . . How could Teach for America do anything but raise teaching standards? We were talking about recruiting the most talented graduates in the country to teach. Where was the conflict?” (Miner P.4)

This just makes me made as I said earlier in this blog “It takes four years of college to get state certified plus a masters and at least five years of teaching before becoming a master teacher.” And I really believe that, teachers need ever expanding education just like doctors and lawyers its silly to think otherwise. There is an art / science to teaching, just because someone is good at something or even masters it, does NOT mean they can teach it. In my experience it’s the exact opposite.

“At the same time, some union members worry that administrators are using TFA to hand-pick staff and get rid of teachers they may not like, especially higher paid teachers with seniority.” (Miner P.5)

This is what I fear most, TFA isn’t really governed and there is no talk of a union so how do educated certified teachers avoid the sexy appeal of cheap, young, energetic new teachers. Teachers that do not ask questions and just do what they are told is exactly what is needed so that people in power can force their values and opinions.

“Nor does it ask hard questions about the relationship between the achievement gap and problems of segregation, poverty, and an unemployment rate among African American men that hovers around 50 percent in some urban communities.” (Miner P.12)

This is a huge issue in education, arguably the footing for all the major issues in education. To not address these issues is to not be a contributing part of the growth of education. TFA is simply a stepping stone in a career path and it simply uses the misfortune of others. To put people with now knowledge or background of the way their students grow up is not fair to the students. I know that there are many times that teachers don’t grow up in the same setting where these poor schools are, a real teacher doesn’t have to leave after two years he/she can grow with the community and really understand the student body.

The 990 also broke down the $523,475 that TFA spent on political lobbying in

2008, within the allowable limit for a 501(c)3. (Miner P.15)

Lobbying in my opinion should have no spot in government; there is now one with deep pockets lobbying for the average person. For the same reason there should not be lobbying that effect education because it simply makes it an unfair fight. There are many well educated educators with plenty to say about the topics and issues in education today but politicians what to fix everything and assign people with no connection to education to decision making education boards.