“I don’t know what the hell I’m doing”

Sunday afternoon Student-Worker Solidarity and Columbia Prison Reform and Education Project hosted a panel titled “The Truth About Teach For America.” The panel featured guests from both educational backgrounds as well as parents from the New York public school system who have had first hand experience with the school system TFA targets to fix with its program. Education Enthusiast Courtney Couillard went to check it out.

The presentation began with each of the panelists describing their individual experience with TFA and/or the public school system of New York. A former TFA member and graduate of Barnard College, Rachel Knight, described a inadequate experience with the program as a recent post-grad from Barnard. Knight admitted the program was an alluring way to spend her time while discovering her passion for being a teacher. What began as a promising and uplifting five-week training session, her time with TFA quickly turned into a traumatizing and stifling experience. Knight explained she did not feel prepared by TFA to enter into a New York public school to teach her first grade class with just two days to prepare and set up her classroom. Her biggest fear as a teacher in TFA was not being prepared to help students with serious disabilities and needs, and she wished that it was made more clear to her by TFA that teaching is a profession, not just a something you get into after college with little experience.

Another former educator from New York, Brian Jones, shared his own experience as a young teacher in New York in his own cousin program to TFA, NYC Teaching Fellows Program. Jones echoed the sentiments of Knight, recalling how painful his experience was in regards to not being able to meet the needs of his Harlem-resident students. Jones also dived into what he called the real question we should ask when creating proposals for education reform: “would this strengthen the hand of the employers or would this strengthen the hand of the labor?” Jones believed that the real issue with education is the fact that it is controlled by economic policy. Teachers are the most unionized group in America, meaning that many education decisions target teachers and will aim to weaken the hand of the unions. Jones tied this back to TFA by saying the program focuses on spending extra money on recruiting teachers through the program rather than investing in the public school system.

To offer the point of view of New York public school parents, Miriam Aristy-Farer and Noah Gotbaum, both presidents of their respective districts’ Community Education Councils, described their experiences of having their children in the school system. Aristy-Farer began by stating that not everyone is made to be a teacher, and we ultimately harm children by placing unprepared teachers in the classroom. She continued to explain how her district, like many others in New York, faces an issue with accommodating students with special needs; many students are English language learners or have disabilities, yet they are placed in a single classroom with all other students and receive little attention for their needs. Children bring real and serious issues to the classrooms of New York, and Aristy-Farer claimed that teachers in the TFA program do not have enough experience or skills to deal with the needs of children in the public schools. She also described TFA as a “band-aid solution” to not dealing with societal issues in the education system.

Gotbaum added to the parent experience by explaining how charter schools have put the public school system at a further disadvantage by being seen as the “magic bullet” to solving issues in the education system. He narrowed into how the school system has become solely focused on test scores as a way of evaluating teachers. This leads to teachers only wanting to work in schools where students will achieve on tests to reflect positively on themselves, which is mostly found in charter schools. Gotbaum concluded that this results in there not being any TFA teachers above 96th street in New York because TFA pipelines most of their workers into successful charter schools rather than public schools. Ultimately, TFA further aids in pushing public school students to the side and setting them up to fail in their public schools.

The panel did a great job at highlighting the hidden side to a program that is typically glorified on college campuses as a path for students to take after they graduate. While TFA does aim to create positive change for education reform, their role in reality can best be described through Knights’ emotional tale: disappointing and insufficient. Knight concluded in her narrative that she truly wanted to make a difference, but her inexperience from her training with TFA made the possibility of doing harm too great to enjoy her time in the program. Holding back tears during her story, Knight clearly showed that her poor experience with TFA remains just as salient years later as education reform continues to be a struggle for public schools in New York.

Update, 8:53pm: SWS requested to include this information about their upcoming initiative in regards to TFA.

On Sunday, November 23rd, Student-Worker Solidarity joined a nationwide campaign to kick Teach for America off of college campuses until the organization makes important changes. This announcement followed a panel discussion featuring former TFA corps members, public school parents, educators, and community education leaders speaking about how Teach for America’s undermines the quality of public education.

Students across the country are demanding Teach for America make three necessary reforms: (1) only send students to areas in which there is a teaching shortage, (2) provide corps members more education and training, and (3) cut ties with corporations that contribute to the privatization of public education such as Exxon Mobil and JP Morgan Chase.

As Teach for America’s December 5th application deadline approaches, Student-Worker Solidarity will deliver a letter to President Bollinger asking Columbia University to cut ties with the organization until these key changes are made. Currently, Teach for America has partnerships with Columbia Business School, Columbia Law School, Teachers College, and School of International and Public Affairs.

Additionally, Teach for America recruits heavily on Columbia’s campus. Among the 850 colleges and universities from which Teach for America draws its recruits, Columbia University is the eighth-highest mid-sized feeder school. In 2014, 25 Columbia students joined Teach for America’s cohort.

These student efforts are part of a nationwide campaign organized by United Students Against Sweatshops that has attracted media attention and a response from the CEOs of Teach for America. Last week, student organizers met with TFA executive Matt Kramer to communicate their concerns in person.

Along with students at 15 other colleges around the country, Student-Worker Solidarity will continue to pressure administration to cut ties with Teach for America until it makes the aforementioned changes to its program and thereby stops undermining quality public education.

Student-Worker Solidarity
United Students Against Sweatshops
studentworkersolidarity@gmail.com

Teaching is hard via Shutterstock