Teach For America

[illram]

Just letting everyone else know (to save them the time) that this is an Onion article. However it doesn't change the fact that some school districts may be less receptive to TFA (I don't know much about it). Downtown mentioned DC reforms (and I've heard a fair amount over the past couple of years about how DC is aiming to reform its schools) but in some cities, one can see that TFA has a bare handful of people. So I guess the question of where they get the most support/where they can have more influence in the system is valid. I like their focus on New Orleans because that area is in desperate need, and see that a few cities have large programs, but otherwise what do they think of different areas and how successful they've been between them?

So the OP couldn't even come up with his own troll? I mean a good troll is one thing but a plagiarizing troll? For shame.

 

[Ethics]

TFA is nothing more than a cheap form of labour for school districts that allow them to circumvent their own subpar pay scales by bringing in some blind sucker who wants to make a difference and has not come to terms with the utter failures and unrealistic expectations of the education system. Instead of paying the fee to get alternatively certified on your own, you let the program send you in for cheap and put you in a position.

In the short term you fill your teacher quota for failing schools that have been written off because of terrible behavior problems/broken communities/failed education policies but it does not solve the problem when you can't retain a teacher for more than five years. Very few people like working in these schools for a reason, and it destroys you mentally and physically.

What would your notions of education be if you were faced with these dilemmas. You've taught children about safe sex and the difficulties that are brought about from unplanned pregnancy. You have students you know who are in your class with HIV and are sexually active (you think you got it in ya to bust down the sex ring in the school bathroom, DO YOU!?), but you can't warn students about the life threatening diseases they are casually accepting from another student because of confidentiality reasons.

How about allowing a student who is severely handicapped, OCD, and can not write a complete sentence without spending two hours or more into a welding program? We believe that anyone should have the opportunity to do anything, but realistically this student is going to severely injure himself when trusted with a lance of fire. I hear "the environment of least restriction" looks good on documentation.

What do you do about the student in your classroom who is mentally ********, but highly functioning (lets say 1st grade levels in high school and does understand right from wrong). He is also extremely violent, threatened you and other co-workers and attacked you or others. He has to be treated differently because hes lifeskills, but the other students do not understand why he gets special privledges after disrupting the class. He can't be isolated in another classroom because that would be discrimination under The Americans With Disabilities Act. What do you do? Remember, we don't want to "write him off."

We have an unrealistic expectation of education in this country. We all cheerfully believe that if we just give someone the opportunity to learn that they will smile widely and become the idealized rationalist that is a productive member of society. People just don't act that way. You have to change the culture that the student has grown up with, and frankly, sometimes thats impossible. A school and the teachers in them cannot part the red sea or turn water into wine. For some reason, we keep wanting them to.

You see, some of you may be reading this and thinking Im crazy. I've been in the school game for almost five years. I'm pretty looney at this point.