Dave's Teach For America Chronicles / Chapter Eight: Leaving
I don't regret my year as a middle school Language Arts teacher. For many students, I was the "cool teacher" who they enjoyed coming to, sometimes even making them laugh. I feel that I helped several kids make solid progress throughout the year, especially in writing. If I had stuck around for another year in Northeast Middle School, that year of experience would have made a huge difference. If I had a different personality, maybe I would have continued to teach at Northeast. But I found myself changing because of what the job demanded of me. As a usually introverted and think-before-I-speak person, classroom B-23 at Northeast often made me act otherwise. I taught in a school where it was an extremely rare occurrence to hear teachers say that they loved their job. As much as I wish that I could say the opposite, my heart was not always with my work. My students deserved a lot better than me, and they certainly deserved a better environment than Northeast.
What's the answer to the problem of unequal education? Teaching for one year in one school in one public school system, I obviously don't have many answers. I can only tell you what my students at Northeast needed, and maybe those observations could be applied elsewhere.
Northeast needed a leader. This was the most basic and most devastating flaw we encountered this year. There was little structure and the students could get away with some unbelievable things without fear of consistent, clear consequences from the administration. Responsibility was always a finger pointing to someone else or an empty promise. When Mr. Lindsay took over halfway through the fourth quarter, there wasn't an overnight change. It was a slow, gradual process, but the climate of the school did eventually improve. Whether it was the principal, an assistant principal, or a highly motivated teacher, we needed someone in charge. Interestingly enough, next year, Baltimore City is bringing Northeast a new principal from out-of-town as part of the "Distinguished Principal Fellows" program. He'll be paid $125,000 and given three years to turn the school around. So there's hope for Northeast in these next few years.
Then there's the case of "social promotion" - passing students who haven't met the requirements to move on to the next grade. By BCPS guidelines, if a student fails three or more classes (that's an average grade of 70 or lower), he or she must repeat the grade. If a student fails one or two classes, he or she must pass them in summer school. On my last day of school, the day where we were stuffing report cards into envelopes, only one student in my 611 class should have technically passed. 11 qualified for (free) summer school and 13 were retained...technically. I'm not saying that every one of those 24 failing students will move on to the next grade. I'm saying that most of my 6th and 7th graders did not come to me with a grade-appropriate reading and writing level, and many of them will move on to the next grade still lacking those skills. It was difficult to assess and measure the progress my students were making when I was given new classes every quarter.
And heck, as a teacher, I did some of this stuff firsthand. I felt incredibly guilty the first time I threw away a batch of classwork without grading it. I would grade a few papers, notice the incredibly low scores, and feel like I hadn't taught my students anything. I'd throw everything away and try teaching the material again the next day. The fourth quarter Northeast Island folders forced me to grade on a daily basis, which kept my standards high. It was also interesting to see so many parents appear towards the end of the school year, asking for make-up work or whatever it would take to pass the class for the year. I put together these ridiculously thick work packets (and only one was ever returned to me). Yeah, I was guilty of changing a few grades and giving out some extra points. I should have consistently stuck to my standards and failed some more students, but I didn't.
There is no easy answer as to why the public school system that I grew up in was better than the one I taught in. Blame the parents, teachers, students, administrators, the system or the inner-city culture, but it's probably a mixture of all these things. I'm leaving teaching with more questions than answers, but Teach For America is a step in the right direction. Instead of waiting around for legislation to be passed or conditions to improve, TFA corps members are thrown into the heart of the problem immediately to fight it head-on. One stereotype that seems to often get slapped onto Teach For America is that of the naive, fresh-out-of-college kid who thinks he or she can save the world until reality kicks in. Critics of the program point to the experience and certification that most TFA teachers lack as causes for concern.
If you ever hear that certification argument again, think about how I could have been magically "certified" by paying money to take those horrendous Johns Hopkins education classes.
Many of the people that TFA brings in would not have taught otherwise. With only a two-year commitment that offers financial assistance for past or future student loans, it's an attractive first job for graduates. Speaking only from personal experience, TFA teachers are some of most motivated people I have ever met. The seven other corps members at my school were incredibly effective teachers, and all of my roommates continue to amaze me with their dedication to their work - they used their own money to do frog dissections with their classes during the last week of school. Teach For America is not for everyone, but for those who make it through the recruitment process and summer training, it's an incredible and challenging experience. The TFA website says: "Since our inception in 1990, approximately 9,000 exceptional individuals have joined Teach For America, directly impacting the lives of more than 1.25 million students, and taking on leadership roles as alumni to increase opportunity for children."
Teaching, even in a better setting, isn't for me. I'm not as passionate about it as many of my friends are. This was the story of my year, but it's not a unique experience. There are thousands of classrooms and schools out there just like Northeast. My roommates could have each written their own TFA Chronicles. It is absolutely amazing to me that some students will come out of this system where everything is going against them, and they will succeed. To me, that's more impressive than anything I can ever hope to do.
(Dave's TFA Chronicles are eight short stories about Dave's job as a Language Arts teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools from 2002 to 2003. Read the other chapters: one two three four five six seven eight)
Saturday, July 19 at 2:09 PM
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