Enroll In Teach For America And Become A Teacher In 50 Hours!!

I came thisclose to not writing about what I am going to write about tonight. In my ADD state of mind tonight I procrastinated quite profusely before I started to actually type these words that you, John and Jane Q. Public are reading right now. For some reason I went over to E4E's official Blog Monkey™ Ruben Brosbe's blog and was just about to comment on the drivel and the self serving tripe written by him today. But I shant be. If someone else cares to tackle this go for it. Just remember I get a royalty for "Blog Monkey™"

Wendy Kopp and Wilbur

So what has been on my mind? Teach For America has been on my mind ever since I interviewed the erstwhile, and debonair, David Green on my radio show on March 31. On this show, and I probably knew it beforehand, I learned, and was sickened that TFA candidates only had 50, yes 50 hours of training before they were sent into the classrooms in September. Yes, I know, they have this pinko, hippie, liberal, love one another, kumbaya, liberal love ins before, during, and after their training. But still, only 50 hours of training? Two hours a day, 5 days a week, for 5 weeks? This is what we want for our most precious commodities, our children?

If your heart was clogged up from all the grease and fat you have been eating for all those years and needed quadruple bypass surgery, would you feel confidant in the procedure knowing that your surgeon has only had only 50 hours of training in medicine and cardio bypass surgery?

Would anyone feel comfortable  when they get in a 747 to fly halfway around the world knowing that their pilot has only had only 50 hours of training?

How about that cop you need to protect you, or to investigate a crime? Would you or anyone feel safe knowing that that cop only 50 hours of training?

Would the Beatles be the Beatles if they only played a total of 50 hours in Hamburg?

Would parents feel comfortable knowing that the mohel they hired only had 50 hours of training before he clips and snips little Shlomo?

Would a Yankees fan want a pitcher on the mound with the scored tied in the 9th with the bases loaded, two out, and the 7th game of the World Series if this pitcher only had 50 hours in the minor leagues?

A firefighter with only 50 hours of training is this someone that you want to have save your life?

Who would hire a school bus driver if he, or she has only been driving a total of 50 hours in their lives?

Would citizens of the United States be content with soldiers and officers with only 50 hours of training?

Would citizens of the United States be content with a President with only 50 hours of training? Wait, cancel that.

Would citizens of the United Federation of Planets be content with a starship captain with only 50 hours of training?

Was Yoda satisfied with Luke Skywalker and his less than 50 hours of training? Luke was an anomaly. Besides, he had Obi-Wan beside him the entire time.

How would we feel seeing a big rig on the interstate knowing that the driver has only 50 hours of training behind the wheel?

I know everyone's answer to these questions. No one would accept any of these situations. So why is it some have no problem with putting our children, our future in the hands of those with only 50 hours of training? You know why? Because the deformers, the politicians, the billionaires are doing everything they can to destroy the nobility of teaching. To them, teaching is nothing more that flipping burgers.

Dateline NBC, To Catch A Teacher

We here at SBSB have come across a transcript of a new Dateline NBC series, "To Catch a Teacher." He now is the secret transcript we received. Quite disturbing.


Chris Hansen (voiceover): We here at Dateline NBC, along with Teach For America, are on a quest to keep teachers over away from students. We have set up cameras in a classroom to catch these older teachers who apply for teaching jobs online. But there are no teaching jobs. It is all a ruse. With the help of Teach For America operatives and Dateline NBC, teachers thinking they have gotten a position with the NYC DOE are exposed for what they truly are. Teachers. Teachers that feel that being over forty years of age qualifies them to teach students.

When these teachers show up for a "job" little do they know that School Safety officers are outside ready to take them down. Today, we are at a school in the Belmont section of the Bronx. A teacher, who on his application went by the email address teach4ever@aol.com arrives. Teach4ever is really Joe Smith, 45 years old, married 12 years with two children, a boy 9, and a daughter 7. He lives a suburban life in Dobbs Ferry, NY. In his application, teach4ever said that he likes to "work on critical thinking skills" with students, that he hopes to "forge good relationships," and most disturbingly claimed he "doesn't care about the money, that students are most important to him." Our decoy principal, Wendy Kopp made to look like a principal invites him into the classroom early in the morning.

Wendy Kopp: Oh, you are the new teacher, come one in. I am early today. I have to do some work in my office, but make yourself comfortable. I'll be back later.

(Joe Smith makes himself comfortable. He hangs up his jacket and puts his backpack up on his desk. He sits down in the chair. Suddenly, Chris Hansen walks in from the hallway.)

Chris Hansen: Hello.

Joe Smith: Hello. How are you? Are you the principal?

Chris Hansen: That doesn't matter. Let me ask, what are you doing here?

Joe Smith: Today is my first day teaching here. I am quite excited.

Chris Hansen: Do you usually get excited when you teach?

Joe Smith: Yes. I love teaching. I love seeing the look on student's faces when the learn something new.

Chris Hansen: I bet you do.

Joe Smith: Look, if you are not an administrator, I would really like to get set up for the students.

Chris Hansen: What was your plan here today? I am reading your application. It says that you have two masters degrees, that you have outstanding recommendations. That you were named teacher of the year in your former school district. Just what do you mean by that?

Joe Smith: To introduce myself to the students, get the lay of the land. Hopefully some guided reading, read a story. yeah, I said that all.

Chris Hansen: You are demented. What's in the bag? May I see?

Joe Smith: Sure, go ahead.

Chris Hansen: Let's see (opening the bag), you have chalk, lined paper, construction paper, Harry Potter, lanyard. What do you think you will do with lanyard?

Joe Smith: I was hoping to do some art projects later. Lanyard is great for doing a math lesson.

Chris Hansen: I bet. It seems that by what you have in your bag you intend to teach students.

Joe Smith: Hey, what the heck is going on here? Who are you?

Chris Hansen: I'm Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC and we are doing a story about teachers over 40 who try to teach children.

Joe Smith: Never heard of you, you know what. I am leaving.

Chris Hansen: You're free to leave whenever you want. You can leave right now.

Joe Smith: Yeah? Right now? I can walk out that door? This is a messed up school.

Chris Hansen: You can leave whenever you want to. I am not stopping you (cameras close in).

Chris Hansen (voiceover): As Joe Smith left the classroom he was confronted by 10 School Safety officers. He was put in a choke hold and tased repeatedly. Joe Smith got the message. Teachers over 40 will be dealt with promptly and accordingly.

Deconstructing Wendy Kopp

It is so unfair. I mean it really is. It has to stop. I like a challenge. I mean, who doesn't. But ever time a newspaper runs a puff piece on an education deformer it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

The most recent puff piece came in the Wall Street Journal this past Saturday. It was all about how wonderful the reporter Naomi Schaefer and Wendy Kopp of Teach for America think Wendy is. Let's have a looksee.

In the spring of 1989 Wendy Kopp was a senior at Princeton University who had her sights set on being a New York City school teacher. But without a graduate degree in education or a traditional teacher certification, it was nearly impossible to break into the system.

ROTFLMFAO!!! This is such, such....gibberish. In 1989 you didn't need a background or degree in education to become a teacher in NYC. You applied and became a PPT, which I forgot which it stood for. The state and the city gave you five years to get your masters. It wasn't nearly impossible. It was quite possible.

Their 46,000 applicants included 12% of all Ivy League seniors, 7% of the graduating class of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and 6% from U.C. Berkeley. A quarter of all black seniors at Ivy League schools and a fifth of Latinos applied to be teachers in the 2010 corps.

So we can just count with the information given is that 25 percent of elites applied for TFA. By the way, would love to see the numbers of blacks and latinos that got accepted into TFA.

Today, Ms. Kopp has a much better understanding of why investment banks and consulting firms were knocking on the doors of her Princeton classmates but public schools didn't bother.

Follow the money.

"is that 20 years ago most of our school systems were thinking that recruiting teachers was not their responsibility. They were thinking that was the responsibility of schools of education. So you had one set of institutions that was responsible for training teachers and another set responsible for actually affecting student achievement results."

Wait, school districts do not recruit teachers? What exactly do you mean by recruiting? I read ads, see online postings for teaching jobs all the time.

The young men and women who join TFA go through an intensive summer institute of training before they step foot in their schools. TFA gives them support and more training.

So in eight weeks a person is ready to teach? I think potential McDonalds managers stay longer at Hamburger University. Wow, more training and support? Why can't regular teachers be entitled to such?

Ms. Kopp said she first became aware of the educational inequities in America during college. She watched her roommate—a "brilliant first-generation college student from the Bronx"—struggle with her schoolwork. Meanwhile, students who had attended "East Coast prep schools . . . thought Princeton was a cakewalk," she recalls

Maybe, just maybe your roommate from the Bronx couldn't afford a prep school? Wendy, we all don't have trust funds.

TFA's fundamental premise is that a child's home life and socioeconomic status need not doom him or her to educational failure. "There is a perception in our communities that we have low educational outcomes in low-income communities because kids aren't motivated or families don't care. We've discovered that is not the case," says Ms. Kopp.

No it shouldn't doom them. But it does not make it easier. And yes Virginia, it is not a perception that kids aren't motivated or families don't care. The pull of the street is real.

TFA released "Teaching as Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap," which shares the practices of teachers who have made significant gains with students. One chart explains why teachers should choose an objective like "The student will be able to order fractions with different denominators," rather than "The teacher will present a lesson on ordering fractions with different denominations."

Where is that done, "the teacher will present?" Where? It is a fallacy.

Given that the Peace Corps gets $350 million, Ms. Kopp suggests "this seems like a no-brainer . . . particularly given that TFA has proven results and is so heavily aligned with the federal agenda around education." But so far, TFA has a big zero next to it in President Obama's budget. Almost no Republicans have signed on to support it because of budget deficit concerns.

Where are the proven results by an independent entity? Let's keep that zero in the budget!!

That's it. I am getting sick. I just wanted to discuss what really stood out to me. Besides so much is missing in this article. Like why so many leave TFA after the three year commitment and why Wendy Kopp feels the need to pay herself a $268K salary.