Reasons why Swarthmore Students Might Find Teach for America Difficult

1) All Swarthmore Students have had many positive experiences with academic learning. Most students in schools served by Teach for America, their future students, have not had such experiences.

2) All Swarthmore students have had many experiences of learning an academic subject by their own choice. Most of their future students have had no such experiences.

3) All Swarthmore students have had many exciting experiences with books and reading, outside of school. Most of their future students have had few such experiences.

4) Most Swarthmore students have had a wide range of travel and life experience, from a young age. Most of their future students have had a relatively narrow experience.

5) Most Swarthmore students are White.

6) Most Swarthmore students are Middle or Upper Class.

7) Most Swarthmore students have had few jobs.

8) Most Swarthmore students have had few experiences living on their own.

9) Most Swarthmore students are very good at taking orders, and not very used to giving orders.

10) Most Swarthmore students are used to the orders they are given being a)reasonable, and b)open to criticism. In most Teach for America schools, the administrative doctrines are neither reasonable nor open to criticism

For example, at my school, students were expected to be reading silently during homeroom, which was the fifteen minutes before first period. During these fifteen minutes, the rest of the class would be arriving and putting away their coats and bags (since they weren’t allowed to be marked late until the end of those fifteen minutes.) Also, during those fifteen minutes, there was a long train of inaudible announcements and inspirational music coming out of the P.A. system, as well as the call for the Pledge of Allegiance. Needless to say, my students did not have an easy time reading silently under the best of circumstances, let alone with all the other kids coming in and out banging the lockers (sharing Yugeo cards, applying cosmetics, discussing last night’s basketball game), the dean coming in to check who brought permission slip money, everybody standing up and sitting down to say the pledge of allegiance, and the Assistant Principal reprimanding us for not listening to the announcements.

11)Academic work, which Swarthmore students are very good at, depends on organizing one’s ideas. Teaching requires one to organize ideas, but also to organize papers, desks, materials, coats, lab equipment, science experiments, bulletin boards, trip money, parent emergency cards, band-aids, and lunch.

12)If students don’t go to school, they or their parents can be put in jail. For many students, particularly those who have been held back multiple times, avoiding jail is an important reason for going to school. For Swarthmore students, who have few experiences with explicit coercion, it may be very difficult to assume a role as warden and cop.

13)Many students (in Teach for America schools or elsewhere) do not know how to organize papers and assignments.

14)Many students do not have a quiet place at home to do homework.

15)Many students do not speak English at home.

16)Many students may have a great deal of anxiety about their failures in school. They may act up to avoid being humiliated.

17)Most parents do not know how they can help their children succeed in school.

18)School requires students to sit still and listen at an age when they are desperate to run and play.

19)School requires students to work silently at an age when they are desperate to talk.

20)As a teacher, you will be in charge of a group of 20 to 38 kids for seven hours a day, every day.

21)School requires students to stay in close proximity with one another all day long, at an age when it is difficult for them to get along.

22)School requires students to learn subjects (grammar, geology, algebra) that are relatively divorced from their lives.

23)Swarthmore students are used to being successful. Most first year teachers are not very successful, and are not made to feel successful by their students and supervisors.

24)Many schools require teachers to be responsible for an overwhelming number of students. For example, my first year teaching I had 208 students on register, of whom at least 180 showed up on a given day.

25)Many schools require teachers to be responsible for multiple subjects. For example, my first year teaching I was given Life Science for the 6^th grade, Physical Science for the 7^th grade, and Earth Science for the 8^th grade.

26)Most Swarthmore students are highly idealistic, and often set very ambitious goals for themselves. In the setting of a dysfunctional school, those goals may be unrealistic.

27)Swarthmore students, who are used to new ideas coming easily to them, may not know how long it will take their students to grasp a new idea well enough to move on to another topic.

28)Swarthmore students may have little idea how to organize lessons so that they build on each other.

29)Most Teach for America schools do not hire substitutes. Therefore, when a teacher is absent, other teachers have to cover their classes. This can mean that every day, your planning period can be taken up as a substitute.

30)Swarthmore students take a lot of responsibility on themselves. In a situation where so many things are outside one’s control, this can be a very self-destructive approach.

31)Swarthmore students may be critical of conventional measures of school success, like test scores and grades. Students and principals all take test scores and grades very seriously.

32)The classrooms in these schools are not ideal. My classroom was huge, but contained jagged, sawed-off faucets, non-functional (except under unpredictable and anxiety producing circumstances) sinks, non-functional (except under unpredictable and anxiety-producing circumstances) gas lines, many mice, a tiny chalk board behind an enormous bench (that blocked the chalkboard) cupboards that were entirely taken up with out of date binders and textbooks, and a door handle that kept falling off.

Teaching can be great. You’re doing something cool with a bunch of exciting and interesting people. You get to go to the museum, read books, build robots or rockets or boats, paint paintings, build sculptures, watch movies, joke around, visit kids’ homes, write stories, play games, practice your Spanish, and once in a while learn something new.