Is Joining Teach for America a Good Idea?

[Turtle8]

<p>I am currently debating the pros and cons of joining TFA and would really value some input. </p>

<p>I have been admitted into the 2013 corps and while I have already accepted I can't help but shake some persisting doubts. This may be normal with any huge life decision, but it also may be my intuition asking for attention. </p>

<p>For some background, I have been out of university for 5 years. I studied Art and Psychology in school and from then on have had a few eclectic jobs that led me to where I am in the most non linear of pathways. I chose not to go to graduate school since I didn't know my own values and interests well enough to commit to this. I also saw a lot of sense in traveling and have always valued experiential learning. </p>

<p>So, instead of graduate school, I first worked for 2 years on yachts traveling through the South Pacific, Caribbean and Southeast Asia. I left this job for more meaningful work and ended up in Mexico for a year with a creative non profit. There I started tutoring English on the side for free and found it really rewarding. I felt drawn to education, which makes sense since teaching has become a career for many in my family. </p>

<p>So, I applied to TFA when I came back to the USA as a way to achieve alternative certification. I do have the intention of staying the minimum requirement of 2 years and from there on continuing teaching or remaining in the education realm. I really believe that their support, professional development and benefits are some of the best. </p>

<p>I still have ambitions for grad school and hope that through TFA I can have the opportunity to help children while furthering my own professional development. I would like to go to grad school for Education, however possibly in the area of Art Education or Technology, Innovation and Education. I see real potential in creativity and technology in schools. </p>

<p>After this long winded introduction I'd like to share with you where my doubts about TFA are coming from. These are merely questions, not accusations:</p>

<p>-Do the majority of TFA members join to use this experience as a stepping stone for a career in law or other high paying professions?<br>
-Does TFA devalue the teaching profession by encouraging corps members to pursue greater leadership roles after their 2 year commitment?
-Does TFA promote elitist values by sending many privileged recent graduates into poverty stricken communities to work in their schools?
-Do schools layoff experienced teachers to make room for TFA teachers in some regions?</p>

<p>I'm approaching this from neutral grounds, with simple curiosity and interest in the experience of others. I look forward to hearing thoughts and ideas! I think it's important to always ask questions and start conversations.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance!</p>

[ScooterSloth]

<p>Turtle,
You are wise to consider all perspectives and educating yourself before making a decision. I would also suggest if you havent already, doing a simple google search for opinions about TFA. You will learn a lot of other perspectives and be able to clarify for yourself if this is a good decision for you. </p>

<p>-Do the majority of TFA members join to use this experience as a stepping stone for a career in law or other high paying professions?
I cannot speak for others, but TFA’s mission is to build leaders who will work at every level of education to close the achievement gap. Additionally, it would be unwise to simply use TFA to make yourself a shoe-in for a law/grad school. I also disagree with the argument that people use TFA to pursue high paying professions–it is statistically proven that the salary you receive after graduating influences your earning potential throughout life and those who want a giant paycheck eventually would be more wise to pursue a relatively high paying career for a new graduate. IMO, people do use TFA to go to grad school or get a higher paying job, but they’re setting themselves up for 2 years of hell if their primary reason for doing TFA isn’t improving education for kids.</p>

<p>Now, to speak for myself, I am a 5 DL applicant and was actually talking to my mom about TFA the other day, and she reminded me about an admissions essay I wrote to get into my current school. It was about how I wanted to eventually become a teacher and give back to the community that I came from.</p>

<p>TFA is a major decision and it would be foolish for anybody to make the decision for ONLY one reason, most likely, it is a combination of reasons for many people. For me, It allows me to get teacher certification (my school didn’t have an ed program) without piling on even more student debt by going back to school. </p>

<p>-Does TFA devalue the teaching profession by encouraging corps members to pursue greater leadership roles after their 2 year commitment? I don’t necessarily think it devalues teaching, especially when encouraging CMs to go into education leadership positions, from this perspective, it values the input that someone with teaching experience could provide. However, I also understand of the alternative perspective on this point.</p>

<p>-Does TFA promote elitist values by sending many privileged recent graduates into poverty stricken communities to work in their schools? I don’t know–you would have to gather data about the background of TFA CMs. Just because someone goes to a top 20 school does not mean they are privileged necessarily–many top 20 schools give excellent financial aid. I was raised in a low-income community and attended an underserved grade school, for example, and received a financial aid package of 95% of tuition costs each year. Similarly, those I know who have been accepted into the 2013 Corps are not from privileged backgrounds. I would imagine that the makeup of CMs is as diverse as the financial make up of great schools, there are privileged people and unprivileged people. Additionally, just because someone is from a privileged background doesn’t automatically mean that they hold or promote elitist values.</p>

<p>-Do schools layoff experienced teachers to make room for TFA teachers in some regions? Depends on the region and depends on how you’re defining experienced. I used the Department of Ed’s report on teacher shortages to help me choose my regions. I also searched google news for the terms Teach For America and whatever particular region I was researching at that moment. This was one of my concerns, so I made sure to highly rank locations that were scrambling for teachers. (Eastern NC and Las Vegas are good examples of regions like this.) One of the biggest faults I find with criticism about TFA is that it does not differentiate between regions–so you have to do a lot of leg work to find the answer for the regions you are considering. </p>

<p>Of course, these are only my opinions and you can find many well reasoned perspectives about joining TFA. In writing these, I tried to offer new perspectives that I hold that I haven’t read elsewhere about TFA. </p>

<p>I had many similar questions that you are voicing now at the beginning of my application process. There is plenty of information from both sides you can find on google, or in books on amazon. Ultimately, I’ll tell you what one of my recommenders told me–if you go into this with your eyes open about all the controversy, you are likely to fare better. </p>

<p>Best of luck in your decision! :)</p>

[Turtle8]

<p>Thanks for the thoughtful post, Scooter. :)</p>

<p>I’ve been able to do a little more research, but in the end it ended up being my decision about what I thought was right. While I still think TFA is in no way the solution to such a complicated problem, I do believe there are a lot of good people that come out of it and put great things into the world as a result. That’s important to me. </p>

<p>If they’re accepting people like yourself, with good intentions and the heart in the right place, I support that. Thanks for your words. Looks like I’ll be moving to Louisiana this summer as I’ve decided to join. </p>

<p>Good luck with your application, as well!</p>