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Have you ever had a conversation with a fellow teacher that made you consider changing your whole mindset about something? This afternoon I had a long conversation with a former teacher who I used to support as an Instructional Coach. This teacher is in his fourth year of teaching and is a graduate of the Teach for America program. In our (heated) discussion we discussed all things education including my disdain for charters, low-performing kids, and my attitude toward the program, Teach for America.

(FYI: We’ve written pretty intensely about the program here.)

During our conversation we laughed, argued and at the end I felt proud of him for how far he has come in his journey as a teacher. As I drove home I thought about our conversation about Teach for America and specifically how we (veteran teachers) feel about them as a program.

The conversation went like this:

Him: You guys don’t like us.

Me: You guys don’t respect us.

Sounds pretty common interchange, right? For years, the debate has raged between Teach for America and veteran teachers about the damage (and success) of the program for entering teachers. Teachers on both sides have literally been screaming amongst each other for years with no agreement.

However, as I drove home after my conversation today it made me think.

What if we’ve all missed the point of this entire argument? Are the “beefs” between both sides enough for us to see we likely have more in common than different? Shouldn’t we both (TFA and veteran teachers) unite to fight the privatization movement? Aren’t the only people who suffer from our argument the students we teach?

So here comes the million dollar question, how can we (both sides) start to make amends for this fractured relationship?

We can start by:

  • Acting like adults. It’s okay for us (veteran teachers) to not like the training Teach for America students go through. It’s fine for TFA graduates to be confident when coming into the classroom. However, at the end of the day the only way to understand both of our plights as teachers, we have to talk without either side accusing one another.
  • Understand that all teachers need support. As an Instructional Coach, I’ve supported many TFA graduates in my time and they need help with all aspects of teaching just like my new teachers who come from more traditional programs. For some their content knowledge is strong, but they have a very limited amount of pedagogy.
  • Understanding we all do the same job. No matter the program that got you into teaching, we all deal with the same issues being a teacher in public education. Every morning we get up and stand in front of children who may (or may not) want to be there and attempt to give them excellent content in order to educate them further. In this time of massive layoffs, school closures and the overall lack of respect for teachers, we have to know that we all need to reunite to fight the privatization movement.
  • Acknowledging that teachers need as much preparation as possible to be effective in the classroom. A great compromise would be to allow veteran teachers to shape how summer training looks like for a potential teacher from Teach for America. Even requiring TFA teachers to stay at a minimum of five years in the classroom would work for on the job training. Or better yet, pairing a new teacher with a veteran teacher to help them navigate their first couple of years as a teacher.

I’m sure both sides could add more, but this could be a positive start. Of course, there would be people (on both sides) who staunchly say NO and that’s okay.

However as a teacher and now Instructional Coach, I know that there are some issues affecting all of us teachers that take precedence over this such as:

  • the continued lack of respect for teachers as professionals.
  • the top down leadership most teachers have to endure at schools.
  • the closing of schools across the country
  • the horrible conditions many of our schools are in due to lack of leadership.

In my fifteen years in education, I have not only supported TFA teachers as an Instructional Coach but several people who I consider friends are graduates of this program. We laughed together, we’ve cried together, I’ve consoled them and I’ve given them the same advice my mentor teachers gave me when I started teaching.

In the end, some of them have decided that education is their calling and have stayed, but others have decided to pursue other careers.

The point is that through these conversations (and disagreements) I’ve been able to understand their viewpoints as colleagues. These same conversations between veteran teachers and TFA graduates may be tense at times and the concerns from all sides (replacing veteran teachers, their training is not enough, the nonchalant attitudes toward veteran teachers, their role in the privatization of education, etc.) are valid, but we have to start somewhere.

The conversation may get loud.

People may get their feelings hurt.

We may walk away upset, but at the end, we are all teachers.

Young, idealistic teachers across the country need us (veteran) teachers to help them navigate the classrooms of today. Us veteran teachers need young, idealistic teachers to remind us of how we entered the field.

We need each other…… so is it time for us all to get along?

 

For fifteen years Franchesca taught English/Language Arts in two urban districts in Atlanta, Georgia,...

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6 Comments

  1. Here’s my problem– and you can see it when you look at your shared list:

    The lack of respect for teaching as a profession has been driven in part by TFA. Note their newest recruiting pitch, which emphasizes that TFA folks don’t stay trapped in a classroom ( https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-new-teach-for-america-now-with-less.html)

    The top down leadership of reform in this country increasingly involves people whose credential as an educator is two years in TFA, but who don’t get it at all

    The closing of schools across the country includes replacing public schools with charters staffed with (nice cheap) TFA

    I agree that many TFASers have good hearts and the best of intentions. But many do not, and the organization is squarely aligned wi8th the people who are trying to gut public education. I will assume the best of any TFAers I encounter, but I don’t see a path to making peace with the organization

  2. TFA has no interest in fighting the privatization movement; their “success” depends on a model that thrives on the churn of constant new hires. Schools that value the knowledge and experience of veteran teachers are not very interested in employing TFA ‘corps members.’ (Even TFA doesn’t call their recruits “teachers.”)

  3. The piece is incoherent and flawed. Teachers and TFA’s do not need each other. And, the few times I have not seen the “beef” between teachers and TFA’s are in informal situations with no relevance. Teachers associations even have helped TFA’s. I find that help out of order and reproachable.

  4. Ms. Warren conflates a personal “beef” with a profoundly flawed policy. If we simply transport this issue into any other profession we see, starkly, the extent of the problem. We dare not consider the consequences of putting a recent college graduate with a summer course in charge of a arguing a case in court, or, God forbid, stepping into a surgery to operate. To backtrack and say that teaching is more amenable to amateur practitioners is to immediately denigrate the profession, for it is a profession and it needs to be populated with professionals, not summer camp graduates. Students and families deserve no less.

  5. 1. I’m a Teach For America alum (as of two weeks ago)

    2. Teach For America has 52 regions across the nation, and each one’s philosophy is shaped by its leadership. In the case of my region, San Antonio, we were told from the first day of institute that we shouldn’t expect to be good teachers at the end of the five-week program, and we should only expect to be marginally better at the end of our two-year commitments. We were always taught to approach veteran teachers with humility and respect.

    3. The very few veteran teachers I’ve grown to dislike have reached that point as a direct result of observing their behavior toward my students or their attitude towards the profession.

    4. Teach For America places corps members in school districts with serious teacher shortages, so yes, while, we may be young and idealistic and admittedly undertrained, we are able and willing to try.

    5. After we’re done with institute, we still attend quarterly Saturday trainings, in addition to our monthly trainings required by our certification programs and any and all additional trainings required by our campus or district.

    6. Some of us teach in high-performing charters and some of us teach in traditional public schools. I fall into the latter category.

    7. Even those of us who will not teach beyond our commitments become deeply impacted by the time we have spent in the classroom. There is no unseeing what we’ve seen, no unlearning what we’ve experienced. We have witnessed educational inequities firsthand, and that changes us.

    8. Some us will stay in the classroom (like me); some will go on to become lawmakers and potentially shape educational policy. Some will become administrators and superintendents and school board members. Some will leave education altogether. But all of us will always remember what we went through. And while I can’t speak for all of Teach For America, I will say that for me, my commitment opened my eyes to a deep-seeded problem with education in this country. A problem I may never have noticed otherwise because I’ve been privileged enough to grow up in a highly educated household, and so what I learned in school was always discussed, reinforced or challenged at home.

    9. The way to end this beef is for both sides to check their egos at the metaphorical door, and remember that this work is first and foremost about the students.

  6. As soon as rich, suburban districts are hiring TFAs at the same rate I’ll entertain a debate.

    Until then, we continue to offer unprepared, ineffective teachers to our children at the most risk.

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