People want to know how I started Teach For America straight out of college, and honestly, my greatest asset was my inexperience. It proved absolutely critical at many junctures. When I declared in my thesis that I would try to create this corps myself, my thesis adviser pronounced me “deranged.” When he looked at my budget of $2.5 million for the first year, he asked me if I knew how hard it was to raise $2,500, let alone two and a half million dollars. But aided by my inexperience, I was unfazed by these reactions. When school district officials literally laughed at the notion that the Me Generation — this was the label for my generation — would jump at the chance to teach in urban and rural communities, their concerns, too, went unheard. My very greatest asset was that I simply did not understand what was impossible.
Tim
on 08 Jun 09What is “Teach For America” ?
I assume it’s something that is wildly successful.
(Guess I need to branch out on my news reading more)
FredS
on 08 Jun 09^It’s what rich white pyschology majors do after college.
ML
on 08 Jun 09Yeah FredS, way to show those people who volunteer to educate disadvantaged kids in poor rural/urban areas! Who do they think they are??? What a bunch of jerks.
tyler rooney
on 08 Jun 09Oddly enough, the guys who started the KIPP schools (featured in Gladwell’s Outliers and detailed in Work Hard, Be Nice) started with Teach for America.
On that note, Work Hard is actually chalked full of Getting Real moments. For example, when they got funding to expand KIPP nationwide there was concern that everything was happening haphazardly. Their benefactor, the founder of The Gap, told them to “keep throwing stuff together. You are going to learn more by just getting started than you are going to learn over the next year studying this.”
Alex
on 08 Jun 09I still don’t understand how her ‘inexperience’ helped her raise $2.5 million dollars. Maybe your connections matter more than your experience in fund raising?
My inexperience sure hasn’t helped in overcoming obstacles.
Marcus Blankenship
on 08 Jun 09Alex, her inexperience allowed her to TRY, where a more experienced person would never have attempted.
Evidently, something she did worked as she got things rolling. A more experienced person may well have decided it would never work and simply abandoned the idea.
Emily
on 08 Jun 09I love FredS’s comment. Hilarious! It is true – I am white, a sociology major, and not really rich but compared to the kids taught by TFA teachers, surely I am and I did TFA after college. You’re so smart, FredS! And
What did you do after college?
The thing I take away from the quotation from Wendy is that there will always be people telling you why you shouldn’t do things and why they won’t work. I can’t imagine all the things we would achieve as individuals or as a group if we could put those voices aside and just try.
Terry Sutton
on 08 Jun 09It still amazes me that people are able to persevere and get anything done with people like Fred there to beat them down.
I’m not trying to gang up on this one blog commenter, but he does represent a much larger, sweeping movement of negativity.
If you can’t handle that someone else is has intelligence, ideas, initiative, and is becoming successful, it might be best if you just stay in bed all day.
Without these 3 things, we’d still be living in caves.
Michael
on 08 Jun 09I think FredS is onto something. I know TfA has a noble goal, but I know people participating in that program. There is something more…escapist than altruistic about their decision to join Teach for America. And they don’t seem to make a difference, either, at least not like teachers developed within these poorer communities.
Perspective: I am a white business major, job straight out of college, but my wife is a brilliant, self-employed teacher-tutor-homeschooler.
Sarcasm Isn't Dead
on 08 Jun 09@Tim: http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=Teach+For+America
ML
on 08 Jun 09@Michael:
If escapism and altruism combine, is that such a bad thing? How about the Peace Corps…the idea of going somewhere abroad is probably part of the appeal. Does that make it any less of a noble thing to do?
And is there any evidence to back up your idea that TFA teachers don’t make a difference? I’ve got to think having them there is better than the alternative, right?
Geoff
on 09 Jun 09For the sake a clarity, Teach for America teachers are not volunteers. They are undoubtedly motivated to do good, and most are probably successful in their effort. But they are not altruistic. According to TfA’s site, they are paid between $27k and $47k per year, and TfA describes in some length how this compares very favorably to other just-out-of-college jobs.
Mike
on 09 Jun 09Awesome quote. What I take from it is that people put up self-barriers thru their experience. She didn’t know any better and kept driving ahead. I bet if you ask a lot of “self-made” business owners, they would probably say something similar.
And to the FredS’s and Michaels of the world, I’m sure these teachers are making a difference. I was an AmeriCorps member for two years and I know I helped people.
matt
on 09 Jun 09Some of the criticism against TFA is very similar to that of PeaceCorps. You have some starry eyed altruistic newcomers who want to change the world only to have the real world hit them.
TFA is valuable. I think it does well overall. It opens up a lot of eyes to just what a cluster f our inner city and rural schools can be like. The issue becomes one of retention (partially). Over 60% of those in TFA do NOT teach at their school a third year. On the plus side, most (I think around 60% total) do stay in the educational field. I’d love to see more data around where the graduates go. Do they move to the “easier” suburban schools? Charter schools?
Michael
on 11 Jun 09@ML. I’ll concede that TfA might be a good channel for escapism. But I’m surprised you position TfA as better than “the alternative,” as if there is only one. I suppose you think the alternative is nothing or perhaps a crass business career. There are so many alternatives that would directly or indirectly help poor students, and there are probably many more that have not yet been thought up.
Barnabas Howard
on 12 Jun 09tyler rooney, its ironic that you mention Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. Based on the principles in that book Wendy Kopp had several unique opportunities for preparation that led up to the creation of TfA.
To me, this is much more a testament to hope and optimism than it is to inexperience.
This discussion is closed.