"Dream Deferred"

After the session in which we had the guest lecturer from Teach For America, my mind has been on it. I have been thinking of all the positive points that Alyssa made on behalf of her group while also considering some of the more negative connotations that I have heard regarding their teachers' dishonest reasons for joining the ranks. When I was surfing articles on the Huffington Post, I came across this one, aptly named, "Dream Deferred." Within this article, they follow the story of a young black teacher, who growing up, had horrific experiences in school with his teachers. We learn that he nearly dropped out of high school and barely made it to college, but for his thirst to correct what those former teachers had done to him.

Going from this young man's story, they transcend into the vast achievement gap that exists between white and black students. As they point out, the disparity between the two groups exists mostly due to the lack of highly qualified teachers in low income school settings. For the most part, many of the most successful and knowledgeable teachers in the United States are not attracted to schools that are in desperate need because they cannot pay as well, are located in undesirable areas and do not come with as much clout as other private schools. An educational and civil rights activist, Amy Wilkins says, "We have to figure out how to fix the horrible cultural narrative, which says that teaching black kids is at best rewarding and at worst impossible." In 2001, with the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act, many thought that this problem of "inequitable distribution of teachers" would be solved, as schools were required to give information on the placement of their qualified teachers in relation to their districts needs. Alas, for the most part this portion of the legislation was and is still completely overlooked. 

Alyssa mentioned in our class that Teach For America is working to acquire more candidates for the program that are of racially diverse and from low income and middle class backgrounds. As she stated, they believe that this will benefit students in various ways, as well as allow more connections to be made from student to teacher. This article reflects these changes in Teach For America, as they have a fleet of upcoming teachers that for the first time, almost half are the first to graduate from college in their family. It was inspiring for me to see that these changes are happening within the organization. Teach For America is know for creating very effective educators, but not always ones that stay in the field. With these changes in the recruiting process, I believe that they will have more dedicated teachers who stick with their love of education. 


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/27/black-students-teacher-quality_n_3661248.html?utm_hp_ref=education-reform