Letter: Hire teachers who choose to teach
Staff Reports
Sunday, June 12, 2011
I found it unsettling that while 95 credentialed vo-tech teachers are losing their jobs, Memphis City Schools hired 100 fast-track-trained Teach For America corpsmen (June 3 article).
This is the new education reality not just in Memphis but across the country. Destroy collective bargaining for teachers -- Tennessee legislators did a good job of that -- and replace the most experienced and specialized career teachers with cheaper, albeit well-meaning students who view teaching like a stint in the Peace Corps.
Real teachers have been repeatedly bashed in the media, and many believe colleges of education fail to create good teachers. Perhaps these schools need to improve, but is America better served by teachers who have less, not more training? Is it not dangerous to de-professionalize teachers? We would never think to create a Doctors for America. Would we?
Most TFA recruits leave after a year or two in the classroom. They come from fine universities, but many cannot find work in their real majors. We must question the teaching commitment of students who cannot find work compared to students who willingly choose teaching as a full-time career.
If TFA were set up as an assistantship program much like student teaching, real
