TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/072390/0723120.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.5 KB | 119 lines

                                                                                EDUCATION, Page 66

Crusaders in the Classroom


Teach for America raises recruits, hopes and questions

By SUSAN TIFFT -- With reporting by Dan Cray/Los Angeles


    The four rooms in a dormitory at the University of Southern
California look like the field office of a political campaign.
The hallway is cluttered with stacks of paper. Phones ring
incessantly. Earnest young workers scurry from room to room.

    A campaign it is, but an educational, not a political, one.
This is the western headquarters of Teach for America, a
radical attempt to woo promising graduates of the nation's top
colleges into teaching. Whirlwind Wendy Kopp conceived the idea
when she was an undergraduate at Princeton. She developed it
in her senior thesis and, since her graduation in 1989, has
pursued it with obsessive zeal, organizing recruiters at 100
campuses and raising $2 million in corporate and foundation
gifts. The basic notion is that non-education majors, after a
crash course of training, will serve two-year stints as teachers
in U.S. public schools in a sort of domestic education
equivalent of the Peace Corps.

    Last week TFA's 505 trainees, selected from more than 2,500
applicants, tried their wings for the first time in the
classroom. Under the eye of veteran teachers, they began
working with students in 65 Los Angeles schools. The classroom
sessions are part of a grueling eight-week training institute,
based on the U.S.C. campus, that includes instruction in
teaching techniques and workshops on decision making.

    "It's overwhelming," says Lisa Robinson, 22, who graduated
in June from Columbia University. "This is the first time in
my life that what I do -- actually molding kids' views -- could
have negative repercussions for years." For others, there have
been frustrating surprises. "I couldn't believe that on my
first day some kid was winking at me!" says Vanderbilt graduate
Melissa Menotti, 21, who taught algebra to tenth- and
eleventh-graders.

    When the TFA recruits' training ends in August, 233 of them
will remain in Los Angeles. The rest will take positions in New
York City, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, La., and rural districts
in North Carolina and Georgia. These are all districts that
permit the hiring of teachers without an education degree. TFA
participants will receive salaries from $18,000 to $29,000 and
be allowed to defer any federal student-loan repayments until
the end of service.

    Many educators hope that TFA's unorthodox approach will
boost the low status of the profession and help alleviate the
growing teacher shortage. According to the American Federation
of Teachers, U.S. schools will have to hire 1.8 million new
teachers by 1997. The need is especially acute in inner cities
and rural communities, precisely the areas TFA serves. "Without
programs like this," says New York City Schools Chancellor
Joseph Fernandez, "we are never going to resolve pipeline
issues related to attracting the very best and brightest to our
profession."

    But some traditionally trained teachers are highly critical
of TFA. "They are probably good people," says Jaime Escalante,
the East Los Angeles calculus teacher who served as the
inspiration for the movie Stand and Deliver. "But the time [for
training] is not enough." Some are galled that TFA has received
widespread publicity while the achievements of most teachers
remain unheralded. "It's because the profession is starved for
recognition," explains Sandra Feldman, president of New York
City's United Federation of Teachers, which supports TFA.

    Many trainees are sensitive to charges of arrogance and
surprisingly critical of their own colleagues. "Some people are
complaining about their area of placement when they should be
thinking about the kids they are doing this for," says Michael
Yudell, 22, a Tufts graduate. TFA itself has come in for
disparaging comments from corps crusaders who feel it has not
done enough to recruit minorities -- although 106 of the first
crop of trainees are African American, Hispanic or Asian
American. "The program needs to be more diverse," insists
Richard Rivera, 22, a Syracuse graduate of Puerto Rican descent.

    Perhaps the biggest question mark hanging over the program
is whether TFA teachers will stay in the profession once their
two years are up. Some youngsters clearly see the experience
as a way station before graduate school or a higher-paying
career. TFA supporters downplay the issue of retention. They
point out that TFA alumni will be forceful advocates for
education whatever their ultimate profession. "These kids are
going to be terrific assets to schools whether they teach or
not," says Robin Hogen, senior director of Merck & Co., which
gave $100,000 to TFA.

    Founder Kopp, for one, does not intend to make TFA her
career, although she would like to see the organization become
permanent. That appears unlikely without government support.
Philanthropies rarely fund causes in perpetuity, and many of
the current grants expire this year.

    Kopp does not seem worried. After all, she has already
achieved what many thought impossible: the recruitment of some
of the best college graduates to teach in some of the nation's
neediest schools. Whether they live up to the high expectations
set for them remains to be seen. But TFA seems to have proved
the enduring allure of teaching -- and of youthful altruism.