TFA rally promotes student involvement
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When MSU alumna Ariadna Ginez stepped into her new classroom at Renaissance High School in Detroit last fall, she was met not by students eager to learn, but by skepticism.
Her students had a history of teachers abandoning them, and they doubted her commitment to teaching — asking her, “Are you for real?”
“I knew that we had failed the moment they asked me that,” Ginez said.
Ginez, a Spanish teacher for Teach for America, or TFA, spoke to more than 200 people Saturday afternoon in Wells Hall at the Now More Than Ever Rally for Educational Equity, presented by TFA and ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government.
Examining proficiency and dropout rates for students across the country, each speaker called for MSU students to commit to help provide students with quality, affordable education.
Education needs to take center stage with everyone from students to teachers to legislators playing a role, TFA recruitment manager and event organizer John Matthews said.
Tosha Downey, recruitment manager at the Academy for Urban School Leadership in Chicago, said when she was a student, she was headed down a bad path until she was mentored by local college students.
The experience showed her the importance of having teachers who believe in their students’ success.
“If lettuce doesn’t grow well, do we blame the lettuce?” she said.
After the speeches, attendees had the opportunity to visit with campus organizations and learn how to help end the educational gap.
Economics freshman Raymond Lu said he attended the event with members of MSU Multi-Racial Unity Living Experience but also to learn more about education.
Lu said he might be interested in getting involved with an educational equity program after graduation to help address the problems with education.
ASMSU Provost Zach Taylor — who will be working with TFA in Detroit next year — said problems in education also appear in higher education, particularly at MSU, where tuition has doubled in the last seven years.
Taylor said legislators and policy-makers appear to have “forgotten” about kids and schools, but students have the opportunity to take a stand to combat the issue.
President Barack Obama addressed some similar problems with higher education Friday at the University of Michigan, where he announced new federal efforts to help college students pay inflating tuition costs.
Ginez said she got involved with TFA after growing weary of legislators not being able to find many real solutions for educational equity.
People need to develop a concrete idea on how to fix the education system and the best ways to teach kids, she said.
“It is critical that we take part in that change,” she said.
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Question about TFA
(01/29/12 10:11pm)Report
“her students had a history of teachers abandoning them…”
Isn’t that exactly the same thing the majority of these TFA teachers do? They pad their resumes for 2-3 years as a teacher ‘committed to change’ and they bounce out for greener pastures. Don’t get me wrong the educational gap is there and there is a severe problem with the state of education at all levels in the United States. But I feel like these programs do not accomplish their intended goals.
Why does TFA invest their time in people who want a ‘job’ as a teacher and not a ‘career’? People doing TFA should be those that are in it for the right reasons. To educated the leaders of tomorrow (for more than 2-3 years) and help make their lives better. Its not even possible to make the solid connection needed to be that factor of change in a childs life.
TFA does good things. I give kudos to the teachers doing it, no matter how brief their stint. But, the vast majority do not stay longer than their commitment and that is the problem. The fact that TFA throws teachers into an environment for which they are totally unprepared is another problem. 2 months of training is not enough. Not even close. There is not student teaching required and no wonder many drop out/are not effective. The false sense of change (immediate) that is that TFA instills in many of these teachers is setting them up for disappointment.
Thats just my two cents.
Thoughts anyone?
@Question about TFA
(01/30/12 4:00pm)Report
I would agree that there is no way TFA is able to solve the educational inequalities in the US by itself. As far as training and whether or not the TFA teachers ar able to teach, I suppose I would have to point to the results of their presence in the classroom. TFA teachers typically teach at least as well or better than many of the “professional” teachers that they work with. This challenges what it means/what it takes to be a good teacher. Clearly training is important, but there are other factors that make a teacher a good teacher other than the amount of time they spent in the college classroom. TFA teachers produce results, this is proven. If they really were unprepared, uneducated ‘kids’ then their presence wouldn’t be in demand by these schools.
@@Question about TFA
(01/30/12 5:48pm)Report
Different poster, but same problems as the first.
The fact that you put quotation marks around professional when indicating teachers who are, in fact, professionals, just indicates even more to the problems TFA is creating in the field of education. Yes, creating.
Clearly, we can all agree on the educational gap. I don’t think anyone is denying this. However, as the original poster indicated, the system of come-and-go is just as rampant in TFA, with people padding their resumes for law school and creating situations where those so-called “professional” teachers are seen as less valued and the “everyone can teach!” philosophy is even more engrained in our society.
If these people really care about fixing the education gap or helping their students, why don’t they commit to getting a degree in education? It’s because they don’t see it as a suitable career or as a profession. This is extremely problematic.
Michigan State University has the number one program for both elementary and secondary education in the country. The idea of this rally taking place on our campus is ludicrous when some of the best future educators are here taking the time to commit to training and be a part of one of the most revered student teaching programs.