By Kristin
Eleanor Barkhorn, a Senior Associate Editor at The Atlantic who oversees the Education Channel wrote this piece about how she almost quit after her first year as a Teach For America corps member, but didn't.
Ms. Barkhorn's experience teaching Black children in the Mississippi Delta had the same effect on her that it has had on so many other unfortunately vocal TFA alums – it changed her life, made her a better journalist, opened her eyes to the reality of racism, forced her to summit the peak that was Eleanor's Inner Being and introduced her to her own true self – and this is exactly why so many teachers resist the idea of TFA.
Teach For America isn't a bad thing. I am in favor of alternative certification. TFA and other alternative routes to certification, like Seattle's Urban Teacher Residency, allow people to join the teaching force who might otherwise not be able to. On top of that, I know many Teach For America alums who are still in the classroom and who are invested, experienced, master teachers.
The problem is that when we hear the TFA story we're hearing from people like Ms. Barkhorn. Ms. Barkhorn wanted to be the best journalist she could be. Of the many routes to this destination, she chose the one that involved teaching poor Black kids. She completed a really challenging two years, she learned a lot, she gathered a bunch of good stories and she is now an education editor with The Atlantic.
On the other hand, like many of my colleagues, when I looked into my future and chose a career I chose teaching. I didn't choose it because I thought interacting with poor kids of color would teach me the few things I hadn't yet learned. I didn't choose it because I thought it would look good on a resume.
I chose to be a teacher because I think education can end the cycle of poverty, and access to education is a human right. I think the public schools of the United States, despite their challenges and weaknesses, are trying to do what no other education system in the world is doing: give every single child, regardless of ability, preparation, parental support or effort the opportunity to be a college graduate. No other country is trying to do this while at the same time struggling to repair and reform 300 devastating years of institutional and cultural racism. We're not successful yet, but we're trying, and in that we stand alone.
I am in my eighteenth year of teaching. At no point in my career have I looked at the children in front of me and considered them a temporary stop in my journey to someplace else. At no point have I considered teaching my personal journey of Selfhood. At no point have I considered the classroom a laboratory where I could bury myself in The Other and emerge a wiser and more desirable job candidate. It's never been about me – it's always been about the students, but stories like Ms. Barkhorn's are inherently teacher-centered. Teach For America's biggest problem is that instead of hearing from educators who were certified through TFA but who have invested themselves in education as a career, we continue to hear from people like Ms. Barkhorn, who have used their two years in the classroom as some sort of professional and social Outward Bound.
We need to hear more from educators who were certified through TFA but who have devoted their careers to students. We don't, though. We continue to hear these indulgent, naive reflections, and they give TFA a bad reputation. It's not that we dislike Ms. Barkhorn for her touching personal journey, it's that we get frustrated her two years as a teaching larvae whose struggle resulted in wings have convinced her she's an experienced expert in education. It's like when Jessica Simpson declared she was going to write a book on "happy (and sexy!) marriage" after being married for a year, a marriage that has long since been over.
No student is a teacher's life coach. No classroom is a proving ground for a journalist. No school is an intellectual missionary's Congo. If you choose to teach, choose to do it right, for the right reasons, and figure out who you are before you take on the responsibility of guiding a group of young people.
Thank you for your article. I must confess that I did not know how it would land as I held my breath through the opening paragraph. It is my opinion that you landed in the sweet spot on the issue of alternate pathways to teaching.
I agree that alternate paths into the profession are not inherently flawed. it’s what we do when faced with the reality that teaching is a tough gig. it is cognitively complex and emotionally fraught with pitfalls; and don’t mention the politics of it all!
It certainly is not a profession to be used for self-discovery. But isn’t it one of the glorious benefits? Moreover, it’s not a step toward something better. But isn’t ‘better’ what we hope to be every day in our efforts to reach and connect with our students?
I live in this paradox of two worlds because I came to the profession through an alternate route. It was not TFA, but nevertheless I was ill-prepared for the classroom. It was the challenge from colleagues that I do better, and the support of an administrator who paired me with accomplished teachers, and ultimately the National Board process that saved my practice (and can I say my students?)
My journey reeks with self-discovery! However, I stay because my practice continually improves; every year there is a goal, just out of my reach that I am compelled to reach. Furthermore, my classroom practice has served as a step toward something better–something needful may be more appropriate language to use. But, my classroom practice makes me the expert in a room full of education policy makers, or district board members.
Therefore, I believe that it is not how we begin the journey, but the choices we make and the barriers we overcome that determines the teacher we will become. 🙂
Chris-
I don’t know that I’d go so far as to all TFAers “scabs,” and I don’t think they’re undermining education. From what I know about TFA, most of them are earnest, bright college alums that sincerely want to lend their talents to education.
And I think most of them come to the realization that it takes more than great college grades to become a successful teacher.
Which, when you think about it, actually helps the profession in the long-run.
It’s the short run, however, that I worry about.
(Which I realize was not the point of your post… but all the same.)
Of course there have been TFA alum who are great teachers and stay in the profession, and though that shouldn’t redeem the whole organization, we can’t automatically judge every TFA alum based solely on their association with the organization.
My main problem problem is TFA is insulting, it says anybody can be a teacher and any teacher is replaceable. It turns my profession into an extended camp counseling gig.
Next it undermines unions which have pay, benefit, working condition and pension ramifications, if those things are lessened then education as a whole suffers.
TFA may have started with some noble goal but now its degenerated into being nothing but an organization of scabs that undermine public education.
That is a great question, Tom, about Finland. That’s worth a post!
Then we agree. Teacher prep needs to be high-quality and it need to last longer than five weeks.
Which is the exact opposite of TFA.
What TFA does have going for it is the caliber of college students who they attract. Many of these kids are the cream of the crop of the best schools in the country. But sadly, many of these kids are simply using their TFA experience as a stepping stone. Not all, mind you, but many. And some of the kids who start out on that path find that teaching is fun and they stick with it.
What if we were like Finland? In Finland the cream of the crop of the best schools apply to teacher programs and ninety percent of them are turned down. What are they doing to attract the best students to the most important occupation?
I don’t know that Eleanor is a critic, but you’re right, she is indulgent and naïve.
I do know people who are great teachers, and who happened to enter teaching through TFA. Whether they struggled less than the average first year teacher or more, they learned what they needed to know and are now people I admire.
I don’t think it’s the route to the classroom that matters as much as what you do once you’re there, and why you’re there. Teaching IS too complicated to learn in five weeks. Absolutely. But many expensive cert programs are also horrible, and their students spend a lot of money to learn on the job.
Not every TFA critic is indulgent and naive. This person, for example, worked with TFA and floundered:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/10/teach_for_america_recommendations_i_stopped_writing_them_and_my_colleague.html
Then she found a real teaching program at a real teaching college and learned how to teach.
Sorry, Kristin, teaching is too important and too complicated to learn in a five-week boot camp. TFA means well and they certainly recruit smart kids, but I don’t think it’s effective.