Teach for What?

Amid the financial crisis that is gripping the country, one bright spot may be an increase in recent college graduates considering the field of education. Teach For America, a project founded in 1990 by Princeton alum Wendy Kopp, places thousands of the nation’s top graduates in teaching positions in the poorest school districts. This year TFA has seen a marked rise in applications, including those from Harvard students. In November, President-elect Obama called on our nation to embrace public service. It seems that his hopes may yet be answered, as more and more Americans seem to have public service professions on their radar now.

It is likely, of course, that one of the main sources of this increase in TFA interest has come from students who, having been turned away from the financial sector, are looking for an alternative job experience that has a similarly strong reputation. Still, it is a good development that the prestige traditionally associated with consultancies and investment banks is now shared by TFA, a public-sector opportunity that advances our new emphasis on public work. Regardless of the motivations behind this rise in applications, it can only be positive that TFA and their participatory schools now have a wider pool of applicants from which to choose. Furthermore, society benefits by exposing more individuals to the American public school system—especially those individuals who, over time, are likely to excel in other fields after being shaped and informed by their TFA experience.

TFA has projected adding over 1,000 people to the program this year. Even so, with sizably more applicants, there will be difficult decisions to be made during the application process. In the end, though, greater competition and increased acceptances will hopefully drive the selection of the best and most qualified people for TFA, whether teaching was their first choice or their second. After all, simply having an interest in business and the corporate world does not indicate that one is unqualified or inadequate to teach; rather, it is one’s commitment and perseverance once in the classroom that matters.

It is part of TFA’s core mission to create a generation of teachers from all backgrounds that can “ultimately exert broader societal influence in our nation.” Not everyone in TFA is going to or is expected to find a career in education, but their exposure to the public education system should stick with them in whatever field they pursue—bringing education and the problems of social inequality to the forefront of their mind and work. As TFA has matured over the last few decades, it comes as no surprise that a growing number of today’s policymakers are TFA alums.

The scope of TFA must not be exaggerated, of course. While it does put over 3,000 people in schools across the country there are still many other routes to effecting change in public education. More still needs to be done in promoting top-down education change in this country, and the onus first falls on President-elect Obama. In the early moments of his administration, it will be pivotal for him to appoint leaders, especially a secretary of education, who will further facilitate the trend toward public sector work and service by the nation’s top graduates.

After all, the economy will at some point recuperate, and positions at Wall Street firms will return. And when they do, our nation must still work toward increasing the appeal and prestige of public sector work. In the meantime, this increased focus on public service and education specifically should be appreciated. As students’ motives to pursue TFA may vary, so too will their backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives—and this diversity can only benefit our nation’s classrooms.