There May Be More You Can Learn How to Do in Five Weeks than Teach for America!
Teach for America has two new pilot programs. Within the new cohort of recruits, there will be a subset engaged in a year-long preparation, including more classroom experience, the study of "learning theories," practical pedagogy (personally, I prefer the impractical!), and "cultural competency work." I hate to say it, but I'm not sure how one would teach cultural competency in a year without degenerating into stereotyping, especially given that some schools are veritable United Nations of education. Let us hope that I am misunderstanding the term.
The second pilot program aims to extend the average recruit survival rates at original placements past the typical two-to-three year period by offering more T.F.A. support. In addition, the organization is decentralizing, allowing for a new age of experimentation. Off hand, this seems positive. In my mind, just about anything would beat five-weeks of T.F.A. training. I can hardly wait though to see all the data that's run on the guinea pigs, I mean, recruits and their students.
Since the new year-long training program only applies to a subset of the cohort, it looks like most T.F.A. recruits will still move into the classroom after a mere
