ONION: Point-Counterpoint Teach for America temp teachers for poor kids
Last edited Tue Jul 17, 2012, 07:15 PM - Edit history (1)
I hadn't thought of it this way before, but it sure as hell is true.
Would you want to go to a lawyer or doctor or mechanic who was just "trying it out" for a year or two before going on to their real career as a teacher?
Then why give kids to teachers who are just doing it on a lark?
[font size=5]My Year Volunteering As A Teacher Helped Educate A New Generation Of Underprivileged Kids[/font]
BY MEGAN RICHMOND, VOLUNTEER TEACHER
When I graduated college last year, I was certain I wanted to make a real difference in the world. After 17 years of education, I felt an obligation to share my knowledge and skills with those who needed it most.
After this past year, I believe I did just that. Working as a volunteer teacher helped me reach out to a new generation of underprivileged children in dire need of real guidance and care. Most of these kids had been abandoned by the system and, in some cases, even by their families, making me the only person who could really lead them through the turmoil...
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Counterpoint
[font size=5]Can We Please, Just Once, Have A Real Teacher?[/font]
BY BRANDON MENDEZ, JAMES MILLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENT
You've got to be kidding me. How does this keep happening? I realize that as a fourth-grader I probably don't have the best handle on the financial situation of my school district, but dealing with a new fresh-faced college graduate who doesn't know what he or she is doing year after year is growing just a little bit tiresome. Seriously, can we get an actual teacher in here sometime in the next decade, please? That would be terrific.
Just once, it would be nice to walk into a classroom and see a teacher who has a real, honest-to-God degree in education and not a twentysomething English graduate trying to bolster a middling GPA and a sparse law school application. I don't think it's too much to ask for a qualified educator who has experience standing up in front of a classroom and isn't desperately trying to prove to herself that she's a good person...
http://www.theonion.com/articles/my-year-volunteering-as-a-teacher-helped-educate-a,28803/
DJ13
(23,671 posts)It says something about "Enter username and password for http://smoove.theonion.com"
yurbud
(39,405 posts)I removed them.
It should work now.
DJ13
(23,671 posts)ladym55
(2,577 posts)He IS a teacher and has been subbing for more than a year. Yeah, and we keep sending volunteers into the classroom and not hiring all the qualified teachers who really want to be in the classroom.
The Onion hit this one out of the park!
yurbud
(39,405 posts)ladym55
(2,577 posts)When I read what you have posted, I think of all the stupid and annoying things said about educators ... none of them true.
Your wife is touching lives and making a difference, and too often she won't know personally exactly what good she has done. The results are seen much later.
My two children are adults now, but I see all the ways their different teachers touched their lives.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)LuckyLib
(6,821 posts)liberal arts colleges, unable to find a job, who are gearing up for an application to law school or biz school.
There are plenty of qualified, prepared teachers out there looking for jobs. In some fields, there are no openings, as the economy has kept many teachers from retiringh. Some districts hire TFA teachers "on the cheap". These "instant teacher" programs are an insult to the profession, the research that supports well-prepared teachers, and teachers themselves. Not to mention children. Any warm body will do, you know.
Rhiannon12866
(206,298 posts)And still in school. It was considered the best school in the area and my grandmother, a teacher herself, chose to send her kids there.