Jeff for America

I just bought a one-way ticket to Philadelphia. 

It really all began last year, as I started to seriously ponder my next move, post-graduation. I knew I was interested in exploring the intersections between education and politics, but my role in that complex field was still unclear. It was quite obvious to me, though, that I needed to gain some real, hands-on experience in the most fundamental way possible – in the classroom. By teaching, I could accomplish a lot of my short- and long-term hopes. Working with kids in South Sacramento and then Oakland and Berkeley, I learned a thing or two about the devastating condition of our nation’s schools and the seriously urgent need to close the achievement gap among ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Teaching in an inner-city, high-need, high-poverty school just seemed like the right place to go.

So I started to weigh my options. 

Teach for America (TFA), if you don’t already know, is a national program that places recent college graduates in rural and urban schools, trains them toward teacher certification and ensures they follow through with the two-year commitment. Think of it as a more specialized, domestic Peace Corps. In many ways, TFA was the perfect option, but I still had my doubts.

There are those that criticize the program for its quick pre-service summer training, naive and idealistic young teachers and short time commitment. See here for a good critique of TFA and look here for some great insight into how TFA gets results and sees itself in the grand scheme of things. There are many studies and reports that show mixed results as to how effective TFA teachers are in the classroom, but I think I have resolved to see it, and experience it, for what it is.

If you walk into West Philadelphia High School, you’ll find over 12 long-term substitutes teaching anything from physics to math to english. These are untrained, often unqualified teachers who may have found there way into the classroom through incentives or in between jobs. Yet we entrust, allow and invite them to teach our most vulnerable population, our children, who deserve committed, educated teachers as their guide. No, TFA is not any kind of solution to this problem, but it is providing a much needed service to districts, schools and students in desperate need of qualified and committed individuals to take on traditionally undesirable classrooms.

But being better than nothing is not good enough. TFA should set its sights on developing alternative programs for long-term, career teachers, partnering with education graduate schools and local teacher education programs to have more long-term influence on the local and national scale. They need to shed the elitist persona that the media often captures in their articles and reports, and should focus more on the work we do than citing what ‘top’ university we came from.

After much thought and consideration, I purposefully decided that TFA was right for me. It is a place I can grow in my career and will encourage me to thrive. I will have high expectations for my students and will produce results from our work. I will learn from them as much as they will learn from me. And when it’s all over and done, I won’t settle for anything less than my best. I’m not sure what will follow my two-year teaching commitment, but for now that doesn’t matter. For now, I’m focusing on everything that goes into preparing for that magical first day of school. Things won’t go the way I imagine, I’m sure, but at least I know when I stand in front of those kids, I can look them in the eye and say “I want to be here.” It’s certainly more than most teachers, let alone other professionals, can say.

So, this all brings me to this moment. I have never bought a one-way ticket before. Kind of exhilarating, but also bittersweet. There is so much to reflect on from these past years, so much to miss and so many memories to hold onto. But those meandering thoughts are suddenly and powerfully overwhelmed by the prospects ahead.