Teach For America is a nonprofit organization that, according to its mission statement, aims to “strengthen the movement for educational equity and excellence.”
The program recruits recent college graduates across the country to become K-12 public or charter school teachers in low-income communities. In other words, it is a program that sends “elite” college students to failing schools because the schools are so horrifying that no one else wants the position, while Teach For America tells them they are here for “the movement for educational equity.”
There were a few Teach For America teachers at both of the high schools I attended. While I was still a student at one, I had a conversation with the vice principal,and he said he had difficulty keeping teachers from quitting. He had 45 teachers, but 17 quit before the end of October, and many of them were Teach For America teachers.
Some quit because they were not able to handle the constant behavioral outbursts from the students. According to a former teacher, Teach For America inadequately trained teachers in terms of handling behavioral situations in classrooms, disproportionately focusing on teaching skills instead. Such low-income schools tend to be infested with behavioral problems. She believed she should have been trained to handle the situations in addition to teaching skills.
While some Teach For America teachers believe they are creating social change, many of them are using the program as a stepping stone for a more promising career. These teachers do not have the best interest of the students at heart. I’m not excusing the students who present the behavioral problems, they should be handled by experienced teacherswho know the methods to handle them.
This makes sense when considering that becoming a Teach For America teacher does not require any degree or certification related to education, so these teachers do not need any experience teaching before before being assigned.
It was emotionally battering for me to watch both veteran and Teach For America teachers who were not actually teaching, but instead struggling to control their students’ behavior.
I was in ninth grade when one of my teachers told me the school system demanded her to reduce how often she wrote students up for behavioral issues. Since the teachers are instructed to reduce their discipline reports, all they can do is scream their lungs sore every day just to ask the students to stay quiet while they teach.
I know another teacher who also quit from my alma mater and to teach at a private school for a fraction of her salary. She was shocked when her students told her “thank you” as they left the classroom because she was accustomed to her students saying profane remarks to her as they left.
If experienced teachers like her did not believe they could teach well in such schools, it’s common sense that inexperienced teachers would have even more difficulty.
I want you, especially those of you who attended above-average schools or private schools, to understand what people like me have gone through. Our educational system has a systemic problem that needs to be addressed, from the budgeting to resources to educate the students. Teach For America is not the solution, but the problem.
Kevin Yau is a 20-year-old sociology senior from New Orleans, Louisiana.