Saturday, June 17, 2017

What TFA Tells The New Recruits About ‘The System’ | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

What TFA Tells The New Recruits About ‘The System’ | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

What TFA Tells The New Recruits About ‘The System’

Image result for big education ape tfa

The Teach For America mission statement does not mention the word teacher.  It reads “Our mission is to enlist, develop, and mobilize as many as possible of our nation’s most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational equity and excellence.”  I don’t remember exactly what year this happened, but at some point in the past 10 years they made a big deal about how they are a ‘leadership’ organization.  Certainly this wasn’t what they were saying back in 1991 when I started as a TFA corps member.
Each year TFA recruits a new cohort of these leaders, around four to five thousand a year in recent years.  When I think of what some of the qualities that a 22 year old leader would possess, I think that many, if not most, would be somewhat outspoken.  Yes, I know that you don’t have to be outspoken to be a leader, but I’d expect there to be some very vocal ones.  There would be at least a few who are writing blogs, who are mixing it up on Twitter, things like that.  One of the mysteries of TFA is how it is possible that none of the 4,000 leaders has any sort of public presence on social media.
I believe that TFA strongly discourages the new recruits from engaging on social media.  It What TFA Tells The New Recruits About ‘The System’ | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:
Image result for big education ape tfa

Image result for big education ape tfa