\doc\web\99\17\teacham.txt
From:           	Carol Gambill <gomath#prodigy.net>


Bruce,


My oldest son did Teach for America for three years after graduating 
from Yale in 1990.  Wendy Kopp, a student from Princeton, started the 
TFA endeavor, and my son's first year was the first year the program 
was implemented. It is an extraordinary program because it offers the 
brightest and best of college graduates the opportunity to teach 
temporarily without certification.  These young people, with their 
energy, enthusiasm, and long history of personal success, bring hope 
and a breath of fresh air to a jaded public education system.


Art taught in Brooklyn for one year and then in South Central LA for 
the next two years.  He was there in South Central when the riots 
were going on.  He loved his three-year experience with Teach for 
America.


The greatest problem with Kopp's Teach for America Program is that 
the teachers get (this might have changed some since my son's 
experience) only one three-week training session during the summer 
before they start in September.  For those who have chosen the 
"rough" sections like Brooklyn and LA, the lack of training is a 
critical drawback.  During the first year of the TFA Program, more 
than 50% of the young Teach for America teachers in Brooklyn quit 
before the end of the first school year.


I have often thought that TFA would be far more successful if we 
could somehow connect these sharp young people with an institution 
(are there any still out there?) which could offer them some 
invaluable training in pedagogical technique (DI, for example) and 
behavior management.


Carol Gambill






At 7:36 PM -0800 11/28/99, Bruce Crawford wrote:
>=====================================================================
>
>
>
>Loopsters and ECC Subscribers,
>
>I just got back from a (gorgeous) weekend in Tucson, AZ at my
>sister-in-law's place. My niece, who is on leave from a doctoral
>fellowship at Rutgers U., was there with an undergrad friend, Liz. Liz
>is a lit major who aspires to be a lit/history teacher in high school.
>An interesting thing came out of our discussion.
>
>Liz plans to decide whether she wants to make a career of teaching by
>joining Teach in (at, for, to, with...???) America. She has choices in
>Appalachia or the Mississippi Valley.  She doesn't want to waste a year
>and the money if she finds later she doesn't like either the classroom
>environment or the bureaucracy. She intends to do this before she goes

>for her credential. I found this both intriguing and contradictory.
>
>At the time when the ed establishment is lambasting non-credentialed
>teachers as unqualified (or worse), the feds are using them in this
>program which is wholly supported by the NEA/AFT. Wouldn't it be
>interesting if these "unqualified" teachers proved phenomenally
>successful?
>
>Secondly, while I don't support any national role in education, I do
>think the basic concept makes sense. Giving the prospective teacher a
>year or two real-world paid apprenticeship would probably do much to vet
>teacher candidates. Does anyone know of state or local programs that
>offer similar experience opportunities? I think the concept just makes
>so much more sense than throwing teacher candidates into a
>process-oriented credentialing program immediately after having earned a
>bachelor's degree.
>
>Bruce Crawford
>