Camika Royal is an alumna of TFA and a critical friend. She knows what is wrong with TFA, but she is not sorry she joined. TFA helped to shape who she is today, even as she questions its efficacy and its boasting.
What she does know for sure is that TFA does not address the structural inequities of American education.
She has read the flurry of articles saying “don’t join TFA,” but she doesn’t agree with them.
She concludes:
“I won’t say don’t join Teach For America or I won’t write recommendation letters. Whether you enter the profession through TFA, a school of education, or some other path, I care about who enters our schools and classrooms, why they come, why they stay, if they stay, and what they do while they are there. Should you choose to teach, please examine your motives and aspirations .
“TFA teachers may have been sold tall tales of being able to correct educational injustice in the two-year commitment, but Wendy Kopp has acknowledged “I know we are not going to change the education system with people teaching for two years. That’s not what we are trying to do.” Then what, educator, are you trying to do? What is your purpose? Urban schools and classrooms don’t need hyped-up heroes who burn out before their fire really gets going. We need resilient, lifelong educators who are focused on collective responsibility and the greater good. We need servant leaders, not self-serving saviors. In too many instances, Teach For America does more for those who join it than for the students and communities it hopes to serve. If you do choose to teach FOR America, please make sure your work improves more than just your life.
“As for whether or not I would join TFA if I knew in 1999 what I know now, this question is just as spiritual and philosophical as it is political and career-oriented. If I hadn’t been affiliated with TFA, I wouldn’t be who I am now. I am better for having had my TFA experience. I hope TFA is better for having had me in it. I hope my students were better for having had me as their teacher. Still, the impacts the organization claims to have are likely gross exaggerations. (I’m not buying claims of 2.6 extra months of math growth.) And I do not support some of the directions and choices the organization makes. But that’s why I’ve also chosen to be a critical friend to the organization. Somebody has to tell TFA, in a way they can hear it, when their stuff stinks. Might as well be me.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That’s all fine from the micro level–young people with good intentions getting into teaching through TFA when they likely wouldn’t have without tfa’s guidance.
But Ms. Royal’s comments ignore the big picture view of TFA, and it’s ulterior motives: to destabilize our profession and privatize our public schools.
TFA has relied on the naïveté of their workforce to become a multi million dollar organization with deep roots in the corporate overthrow of public education in our country. We ignore the big picture of their true goals at our peril.
Yes, her analysis is rather self-centered – what TFA did for her (and, bizarrely, what she did for TFA). She does give lip service to hoping that the kids benefitted from having her, but there’s no thought to who they might otherwise have had. Did her service displace a veteran teacher? While she may very well have done some good with her kids, a veteran teacher may very well have done better. And, yes, as you mention, no matter how much good she may have done personally, the organization itself is ultimately toxic to public education.
It’s hard to leave an abusive spouse who is a slick talker.
I respect Camika Royal’s decision.
I also respect what another ex-TFAer, Gary Rubinstein, is doing on his blog.
Link: http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org
Please visit the above website.
😎
I hope Camika is right that TFA can be reformed, but I don’t believe it and think it’s a wasted effort. It’s way past time for overt resistance to TFA. For one thing, they have shown no real inclination to change for the better in their 20 years and their backers clearly don’t want them to. And, frankly, educators, parents, and students can do lots of better things to improve education.
Check out http://atthechalkface.com/2013/12/04/despite-our-best-evidence-camika-royal-still-considers-tfa-a-viable-option-say-again/ for a great response to Camika.
Also check out http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2012/01/some-argue-that-we-should-work-together.html for a great response to calls from TFA to join or work with them.
Also check out http://reconsideringtfa.wordpress.com/ for more on TFA (sorry shameless plug for my site 🙂 )
“In too many instances, Teach For America does more for those who join it than for the students and communities it hopes to serve.”
Correction: TfA does more for its expansion and lobbying power than for the students and communities it pretends to serve.
As I said in another post, my daughter was hired to teach remedial math and algebra to high school freshman in the inner city of Buffalo about ten years ago. She had no education courses, just parents who were teachers. The district was desperate for Math teachers and she had a Math degree. Her students did as well as the students in other classes, so I don’t think she did any harm.
Previously I made an analogy that the TFAs would either sink or swim. My daughter felt that she was treading water and, at the end of the year, she decided – “enough of this nonsense” – and got out of the pool. I think this is the most likely scenario.
From the article:
“I also agree with the Harvard Crimson editorial board in this statement: ‘Teach For America is valuable because it provides at least a temporary solution to America’s educational problems.'”
Pure bombastic bovine excrement is that editorial statement. TFA “provides at least a temporary solution to America’s [sic] educational problems”. Riiiigggghhhttt!!!! And I’ve got some great ocean front property for sale cheaply over at Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri. If that’s the kind of editorial logic that the Crimson editors use, I hope their faces are crimson as well.
And Ms. Royal agrees with it.
Duane – I suppose our analysis is based on our perspective on the issue. If we are talking about helping the students – the jury is out (but we are concerned). If it is about improving education – that is at the least circumspect and at the most harmful to the institution. If it is about enriching the life of the teacher who is a part of TFA, then we have Carmen’s testimony of this possibility. I’m sure she is not alone.
Ultimately, Carmen and her ilk are a part of the network of young Americans who are still growing and learning. Think of this as a paid internship. Think of this as continuing education. For Carmen it was a valuable experience which made her a better person. Let us not deny her reality, even if we don’t like the vessel it came in – the TFA program.
Here’s a novel idea. Educators start a non-profit that helps match education majors with areas of greatest need.
They already exist, they are called, unfortunately, “human resources” departments of public school districts.
And most undergraduate education programs have placement offices that help grads find a position.
Ms. Royal’s critique is a good start, but does not go far enough. After all, she uncritically quotes Wendy Kopp’s statement that TFA is not trying to change education – really? Isn’t that part of the organization’s hype? And isn’t that what it’s helping to do by turning teaching into temporary employment? – without asking, “Well, then what is it trying to do?”
Of course, the answer to that question, which Royal evades but Kopp herself has answered, is that the real purpose of the organization is too identify, train and promote “leaders” (aka serial public school killers) who will facilitate the privatization of the schools.
Though I do not have a problem with the interns–They tend to mean well — i take great offense at TFA and the scams of Walmart/ Kopp. Camika endorsing TFA is endorsing the upheaval of campus culture, institutional memories and millions of teachers’ careers to serve an oppressive plutocracy that is hellbent on orchestrating an intellectual holocaust . I believe all my experiences are valuable too, but if experience teaches me something the hard way, my duty is to teach others what I know to help them avoid repeating my mistakes. There is no teacher shortage. Education programs are losing students and even these interns are revolting at what they see and are now part of. What a reckless and stupid thing to say.
Can you explain your use of the term “intern” in this comment? And would you mind defining for whom these folks are “interning” ? I’ve heard lots of folks (Ravitch included) refer to TFA-trained teachers as “kids” and “students” and while those terms are a little too mean-spirited for me (in that they are clear attempts to deride those classroom teachers), at least I can see where they’re coming from. I need some help understanding “intern.”
Did I call TFA “kids”? I usually refer to them as young college graduates. Which they are.
I detest what the TFA “corporation” is doing but in no way could possibly detest someone who joins TFA who actually plans to have a long career in teaching. We do not know the author’s line of work currently as she writes this. I would hope that she stuck to a career in teaching otherwise her words are empty. I find it appalling that veteran teachers spend an inordinate amount of highly valuable time and effort mentoring new teachers who have no intention of staying in the field.
Maybe TFA filled a vacuum, where young people out of college need a challenge to put all their learning and energy to use.
What other job offers are these grads passing up? Maybe there is a dearth of opportunity for them to find a home for their skills, which is a greater societal problem.
It’s hard to remember, but we were young once and someone gave us a chance. God Bless you, Mr. Found.
There are valid points both for and against – with the real villains being the manipulators who are taking advantage of our young adults. Let’s always keep an open mind and focus on the real issues and not the victims – both students and teachers.