<p>Just watched a heart-warming story on CBS evening news about the growing trend for college grads to forgo high-paying post grad jobs to participate in “Teach for America”. Bob Schieffer said that 12% of Harvard grads and 40%(?!) of Yale grads apply for this, having a vision to use their intellect to help the next generation, in particular underprivileged that might be ready to give up on themselves and their future. It was just incredibly gratifying to listen to these fine, intelligent, compassionate grads that are demonstrating that the “me-generation” might be on its way out! I’m so proud of our young people!</p>
<p>my wife just told me about that story. One of my neighbor’s D is doing that.</p>
<p>Perhaps this “9-11” generation will be the ones to pull our society out of the materialistic, aggressive road we’ve been on! Hurrah!</p>
<p>Some use it as a backup if the Ibanks don’t come through. I heard this from a Dartmouth discussion of job placement.</p>
<p>Thankfully, many others sounded like it was their first choice for a season, truly wanting to “give back”.</p>
<p>Call me a cynic.</p>
<p>My niece finished her 3 year TA stint in 2001. She went on to a state medical school (rather than Harvard) and is currently doing a Masters in Public Health before going on to her residency. </p>
<p>The program was in line with her strong service spirit. In high school, she spent months in Haiti with her pediatrician father.</p>
<p>Like the Peace Corps, the 3 year stint does delay significant aspects of adult life; ie grad school, med school, marriage, children.</p>
<p>Actually some may discover that their true vocation lies in teaching, and that it’s not just an interim step before pursuing other careers. I hope that this will be true for some of the participants.</p>
<p>A friend discovered his love of teaching from volunteering after college through a 2 yr. stint teaching overseas. Of course, it would have been great if he knew all along that teaching was the field for him, but this practical volunteer exp. really cemented the idea that he was called to be a teacher. So it wasn’t a hardship to have to work toward certification once he returned.
Good luck to those volunteers - hope you make teaching your career!</p>
<p>I was happy to find UW is highly represented in this very competitive program:</p>
<p>Colleges Most Attended by 2004 Corps Members</p>
<p>University of Michigan</p>
<p>University of Wisconsin-Madison</p>
<p>Indiana University at Bloomington</p>
<p>Cornell University</p>
<p>University of California-Berkeley</p>
<p>University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</p>
<p>Northwestern University</p>
<p>Duke University</p>
<p>Harvard University</p>
<p>The University of Texas at Austin</p>
<p>Michigan State University</p>
<p>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign</p>
<p>University of Virginia</p>
<p>Boston College</p>
<p>University of Califonia-Santa Barbara</p>
<p>Emory University</p>
<p>University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>University of Southern California</p>
<p>Penn State University Park</p>
<p>Brown Univeristy</p>
<p>University of California-Los Angeles</p>
<p>Washington University in St. Louis</p>
<p>Georgetown University</p>
<p>Rutgers the State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick Campus</p>
<p>University of Washington-Seattle</p>
<p>“Actually some may discover that their true vocation lies in teaching, and that it’s not just an interim step before pursuing other careers. I hope that this will be true for some of the participants.”</p>
<p>Irishbird, I hope so as well. My daughter’s French teacher is in her first year teaching in our school after teaching with the Peace Corps in West Africa for three years. She doubled majored in college and used her French language skills to teach the other subject. Her perspective on the world and her experiences in Africa that she shared with her students taught them so much more than French.</p>
<p>My daughter plans on teaching before med school. I see it as a win, win. If for some reason med school doesn’t work out she will have explored a wonderful profession. She volunteers in the NYC public school system each week during the school year and loves it.</p>
<p>I think it is a great program- it is a shame it is underfunded-
One young man I know who spent 3 years in DC schools was then told that the help for his college loans- would not materialize.
He still enrolled in a education program however and is now a student teacher at an inner city middle school
<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,476274,00.html[/url]”>http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,476274,00.html</a></p>
<p>But how do they teach without being certified? My daughter is an education major and will have months worth of observation and student teaching under her belt plus have to have taken (I think) three tests at differerent levels to be certified to teach. How can someone with just a B.A or B.S just teach without all that knowledge, experience and test taking? In most states you can’t even declare an ed major without having a B avg and passing a praxis (or equivalent) test. </p>
<p>I’m not saying this isn’t a great idea, but not everyone is meant to be a teacher and to think that you can just “teach” sounds disrespectful to the people that are spending 4 years with that aim in mind.</p>
<p>It’s popular at Yale. They give out free pizza.</p>
<p>No, not everyone is meant to be a teacher. But the students who will be aided by this program don’t have the time to wait for accredited teachers who are willing to work for next-to-nothing to come reach out to them.</p>
<p>Not all food is nutritious or healthy. But if you are starving, you’ll eat anything.</p>
<p>From the TFA site</p>
<p>School districts hire Teach For America corps members through state-approved alternative certification programs, whereby corps members must meet specific requirements and demonstrate proficiency in the grades and subject areas they will teach. These program requirements vary by region and by position, but in most cases they call for corps members to pass subject-area tests before teaching and to take ongoing coursework during the school year. Teach For America works with school districts, states, and schools of education to ensure that corps members have access to coursework, test information, and preparation tools to meet these requirements. In many regions we have established partnerships with graduate schools that enable our corps members to obtain their masters degrees in education. While Teach For America connects corps members to these resources, ultimately corps members are responsible for ensuring they meet the required standards and for covering the related costs</p>
<p>When a TOA volunteer is placed in a school, it is a school which has been identified as high need.
HIgh need areas are permitted to waive traditional requirements.
even my SIL ( sister in law) who had a teaching degree but hadn’t taken her certification test, ( mostly because her university took months and months & months to send required info to her state), was permitted to teach in Indiana on a temporary basis.
Also I want to add, that in my years of being involved in the schools, on hiring commitees, parent boards, and as a classroom volunteer, that some of the worst teachers I have seen, have gone through a college of education, and some of the best only had their degree in their subject. ( private schools aren’t required to hire teachers with education degrees)
I am sure there are some fine schools of education, but having sat on hiring commitees for the past ( mumble mumble) years, there are some that should be ashamed of the preparation they give students.</p>
<p>I’m not knocking the program or saying that if you are an education major you’re going to be a good teacher. Heaven knows, my kids have had their share of BAD teachers. I just didn’t understand how a non-ed major can be allowed to teach. My son had a horrible math teacher who was an engineer, got certified and was not a good teacher. I think the best teachers have a passion for their subject, know different ways to teach the same information and are kind people. It’s the differentiated instruction that they would get in education classes.</p>
<p>My daughter said that she loved student teaching because she was able to put into practice some of the things she had learned in her ed classes. I will say that my husband and I were wondering how good an education she was getting because her college graduates very few ed majors every year. However, last year at parents weekend we found out that hers was one of only two colleges in Illinois whose education major got a perfect score for accredidaton. hmmm, that spelling looks funny. Obviously, I’m not a teacher!</p>