Teach For America?

When I was a first year student at Columbia University I began teaching religious school. Many of the lesson plans were scripted for me in a curriculum developed by the Melton Center at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. The curriculum said things like "say this..." "Students will say this..." I'll never forget the time that a student said something insightful but not included as a possible student response on the curriculum. Perhaps because I was following the scripted lesson so carefully, instead of the students, I was lost.

Several years laster, after graduating from college, I accepted my first teaching position at a Jewish day school. I still had never taken an education course. I remember thinking that as long as I taught my middle school students in the same way that my teachers had taught me I'd be ok. Since college was my most recent memory of being a student I figured all I had to do was talk and say interesting things and my students will pick it up. After all that had worked for me throughout my middle school, high school, and college career. Unfortunately, it didn't work. My students were bored and disruptive because they wanted to be involved in the class not just sit as passive recipients.

Finally, after my first year of teaching I started taking education courses. I also began to learn how to teach effectively. I'm not sure how strong of a correlation there was between my taking education courses and learning how to teach, but they at least happened at the same time. Several of the education professors really did encourage me to think about effective teaching. Regardless of why I learned how to be a good teacher, it did not happen over one summer. It took me many years and indeed I am still working on developing my teaching repertoire and thought bank.

So, what does all this have to do with Teach For America?

I'm a pretty smart fellow and it took me many years to grow into a good teacher. How can we possibly expect individuals to become good teachers in the short span of a summer. A summer isn't even enough time to begin to challenge the ways an individual thinks about good teaching, let alone help him/her develop new teaching styles.

At the same time, if there are shortages of effective teachers and individuals out of college are energetic and enthusiastic about making a difference in the classroom shouldn't we offer them this opportunity? Most will certainly be better than nobody.

Let's just remember how difficult it is for young teachers to be effective in the classroom.