Katie Osgood teaches in Chicago. She has a wonderful blog, where she regularly posts common sense based on her experience and wisdom.
In this post, she says that Teach for America is not only a poor substitute for genuine teacher professional preparation, but is a dangerous indoctrination machine.
Case in point: A recent article by a kindergarten teacher who was very pleased that she had taught her students to love testing. As Ms. Katie read the article, she immediately guessed that the writer must be TFA, and of course, she was right. (Be sure to read the comments!)
Let’s take an example. A few weeks back, there was a truly shocking commentary in our Chicago education magazine Catalyst Chicago that was titled How Bailey Reimer’s kindergartners came to love testing. Most educators who saw this piece were appalled. Look at the comments.
I know when I saw this piece, the very first thought I had was…she’s TFA. And lo and behold, she just completed her TFA stint. TFA’s influence on this young woman’s ideas were stark, obvious, undeniable. Now that indoctrination process is reinforced by other neoliberal organizations such as being placed in a charter school and then also being recruited into Teach Plus-a Gates funded faux teacher voice group. But that’s the thing with TFA, it’s often a one-two punch. TFA-in many areas-operates inside a nexus of neoliberal edreform ideology. TFAers are completely isolated from alternative view points even as they are beaten up by a ridiculously arduous summer training filled with unnecessary sleep deprivation and mental health harming stress. Then they are thrown-unprepared-into some of the most challenging workplaces in our country. There is quite literally no time to stop and think about the bigger picture and that is intentional.
When all you have ever heard is “testing data is necessary to teach”, then this statement makes sense:
“To get to a point where my students appreciate and understand testing, I had to first appreciate it myself. I love tests that give me relevant, timely information about how my students are doing, from how many letter names they know to how many words per minute they read.”
Suddenly, what “good teaching” is gets warped into the image of neoliberal ideology based on a bunch of “data-driven” drivel. Most teachers, especially veteran educators could never, ever say this line: “Of course, 5-year-olds don’t come to school automatically loving testing. As educators, it’s our job to build that appreciation and understanding.” No! No, it’s not. But we can see how it was TFA, combined with the charter school environment, that made this statement real for this teacher. This mindset is dangerous.
I believe there are number of reasons why this indoctrination process is so effective. 1) They use the time-tested method of breaking you down to build you up in the Bootcamp summer training. 2) The recruitment process onward is a series of indoctrination sessions. And perhaps most importantly 3) TFA’s claim of being the “best and brightest” means any other opposing viewpoint is immediately dismissed on the basis of not being TFA magic.
Right now stop and do a google search for “how to indoctrinate”. No seriously, do it. What pops up? Article after article describing how to lure folks into a group with promises and lies about the actual purpose of the organization, slowly strip down any autonomy or sense of self through boot camp like conditions, then carefully isolate and fill with desired ideas. This is exactly what TFA does. Exactly, like they copied the “indoctrination” playbook. Colleges of education don’t do this, unions don’t do this, but TFA uses the most blatantly cult-like process they can to get the desired effect.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think that it is sad that there are actually people who will participate in a program like TFA with no intention whatsoever to teach! I can only imagine how hard this must be for students who have a teacher who doesn’t really have a love for teaching. The turnover rate for teachers in TFA is way too high. I, being a college student myself have been sent so many emails informing me about TFA and in the emails it even says, “You don’t even have to want to be a teacher!” This is just horrible in my opinion.
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Another venue where this is done is “Handwriting without Tears” training courses, which are often given as the handwriting component of occupational therapist training degree-programs in colleges, and increasingly in college teacher-training programs, If you’d like to look into this, give me a call or send me an e-mail: you have my contact-info, as an remember …
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“As the class nods in agreement, I’m reminded of how much my kindergartners love tests. They love the uninterrupted work time and comparing their new score to their old one. They love the easier questions that give them confidence and the harder ones that give them a challenge. In my class, testing is one of the best tools to get students excited about how much they are learning.”
Or they’re normal 5 year olds who like and admire the teacher, want to please her, and know that the teacher values tests and heaps praise on them when they take them.
They would probably love jumping up and down or spinning in circles if they figured out she valued those things above all others too.
I’m not sure adults should take children figuring out what adults value and then “loving” those things as an endorsement. It’s probably more of a survival skill in that class.
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Chiara:
When it comes to some TeachForAwhiles, there is nothing less common than common (or good) sense.
Rheephorm self-delusion seems to know no bounds.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
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I believe most writers on this blog can remember when they were twenty-one and totally gullible about movements they joined. When I joined VISTA, my Republican, conservative father reminded me of the year I would forgo in the field of my choice. One year was not so bad to me, but I did take it into consideration. TFA people who do not plan to work in TFA in the future should consider what two years teaching might do to their plans for advancement in other fields.
Not everyone trained by TFA is taken in. I know of one woman who left the minute she hit the kind of high school of which TFA trainers seldom speak. The one where scores do not go up and disobedience and violence are epidemic. I have also heard some recruits of color also doubted the Pollyannaish culture of TFA. They had not been to observe charter schools in the toughest neighborhoods where scores remained low and behavior problems were the norm. Rather they had been exposed to charters where minorities of color were minorities still. Perhaps their own experiences in life had informed them of a reality of which middle-class white kids seldom are aware.
My Urban League VISTA training on the other hand exposed recruits to the kinds of people we would encounter in organizing (some not so pretty pictures) and reminded us that not all people would be grateful for our so-called “help.”
P. S. My own son, who I had planned to opt out of testing in 1988, rejected my plan, enthusiastic to do what the teacher wanted. The results of his standardized test only confused his teacher. His vocabulary scores were high, probably because of the vocabulary of the home, but he could not put together puzzles, probably because of his ADHD and refusal to ever do them. Some teachers often take credit for outcomes they have no real control over. I often remind teachers that what comes together in one year may be because that teacher provided the missing piece to a puzzle years in the creation. The last synaptic connection may be the only thing one individual teacher has provided. We cannot see what everyone else has done until that one last connection has been made.
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People do all sorts of things due to the human nature to comply and to do what’s asked of them. It takes a strong individual, or one who’s been educated to do so, to stand up to questionable directives.
Stanley Milgram was probably the most famous social scientist to study compliant behavior and exactly how far one person will go in following orders, despite the risk to another human’s safety and well-being.
The answer to so many doing so much harm in the name of “education” or worse, “education reform,” is to explicitly teach something called “Intelligent Disobedience.”
I again highly recommend the book “Intelligent Disobedience – When to do Right When What You’re Told to do is Wrong” by Ira Chaleff. It’s worth the time to read it, (although I think the part on how this would work in a classroom needs further development…)
The author is currently speaking out and trying to create awareness about this critically important facet of human learning. He proposes explicitly teaching these skills to children (and adults) in hopes more people will be able to question directives when they may lead to harm of another.
In the world of TFA and education in general, we need more Intelligent Disobedience.
We need to Stop, Think, then Act.
Is what we’re being asked to do promoting well-being? Growth? Learning? Happiness? In whose best interest are you acting?
I am hopeful enough to believe this could at least help in our quest to turn the tide against the destruction of our schools.
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Oops, actual book title: “Intelligent Disobedience- Doing Right When What You’re Told to do is Wrong.”
http://www.irachaleff.com/wp/blog/
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Excellent observations Linda. So much is lost in the drumbeat for annual test scores, as if there can and must be a smooth trajectory for learning within a year and year to year, no early or late bloomers allowed, continuous improvement on all fronts at all times.This is the doctrine of federal and state policy in this era. It must be resisted.
I regret to say that the following statement by Katie Osgood about the TFA “indoctrination” playbook cannot be assumed as a truth: “Colleges of education don’t do this, unions don’t do this, but TFA uses the most blatantly cult-like process they can to get the desired effect.”
Colleges of education are being implicated in the promulgation of authoritarian trainings in the manner of TFA and Doug Lemov discipline and “high-leverage” practices as the essence and end of effective teaching–meaning raising test scores and graduation rates and pleasing the “customer” of your services–your employer, students,and families of students.
Thanks to the revolving doors between federal policy makers and billionaires who think that learning everywhere can be “accelerated” and ALL children can succeed in being above average if “properly taught,” we are entering an era of bashing schools of education in favor of charter operators like Relay Graduate School of Education, Match, and district-based courses and residencies designed to fill specific jobs (grade level, subject). The aim is to eliminate academic freedom in teacher education and to indoctrinate teachers to “best practices,” as if these are written in stone and free of any ideology. That kind of standardization is the point of teacher preparation “Inspectorate” system being funded by the Gates Foundation–a process for rating teacher preparation programs designed to exclude higher education faculty and scholars in education.
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I totally agree about Colleges of Education under the influence of edreform. However, my point was more about the straight-up breaking a person through boot-camp pressures-with little sleep and high pressure situations-in order to prime them for the indoctrination.
But yes, edreform has infested teacher training programs to a disgusting degree. Still, without TFA-like breaking and isolation plus the “best and the brightest” elitism, grads from traditional programs have a greater chance to hopefully hear the truth, especially from active social justice unions like we have in Chicago.
TFA’s process is just so darn intentional. It’s scary!!
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I’d like to offer a subtle critique of this, but please do not take this as one of substantive disagreement. As a former TFA corps member who is still teaching in my placement region but not officially involved, I am disheartened by the organization’s contribution to the high-stake testing culture that permeates our education system. I am aware of (and so are the majority of other TFA corps members and alumni), and often contribute, many valid criticisms of the organization–some of which TFA is actively trying to work on and others, unfortunately, that it is not.
My pushback is of another sort: tone. When I read hyperbolic attacks such as accusations of “indoctrination” or the snarky tone of critics such as Rubinstein (who offers many valid critiques that I value), I am frustrated not by their content but instead by their delivery, which inevitably makes them easier for others to reject. It also polarizes the water, creating a “TFA is evil!” v. “TFA is changing lives!” dichotomy–one that does not reflect reality.
Criticism is important–that is how we work to improve our works and our systems–but so is the way we criticize. While our current social climate may encourage the exaggerative and headline-grabbing [i.e. Trump], I hope we can rise above it to have honest, substantive conversations. When done respectfully, we can move towards the changes that are desperately needed.
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I actually think this kind of tone policing is dangerous and should be addressed. Expressions of anger against an organization like TFA that is having direct impact on our everyday lives as teachers as the neoliberal assault bombards our workplaces are normal and appropriate. Tone policing is often used as a tool of those in power to silence the less powerful.
What’s happening in education-heck, all over our society-deserves real sustained anger. Hyperbole, snark, and anger are our online weapons. And we need every weapon in our arsenal to defeat the 1% racist bastards ruling our world.
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Marcus Luther,
Here is a substantive criticism of TFA that is not guilty of having the wrong “tone.” Teach for America began as a good idea. A Peace Corps for temporary teachers. But Peace Corps volunteers do not pretend to be Foreign Service officers. They go to villages to do what needs to be done. They help where needed. They dig latrines, they patch roofs, they teach English. They recognize their limitations and they serve. TFA asserts that its barely trained recruits are better than experienced teachers, better than those who commit their lives to teaching. They tell recruits that they (unlike those selfish veteran teachers) will close the achievement gaps in their two years of apprentice teaching. These are lies. TFA undermines the teaching profession. It provides the workers for non-union charters. Its leaders are paid handsomely to do the work of the most rightwing funders in the nation. How many millions has TFA collected from the rabidly anti-union Walton Family Foundation? $50 million? $60 million? $100 million? How much is enough? Young people are lured into a role that supports the agenda of the 1%. After 25 years in business, where has TFA achieved its stated goals?
I have taken care to write without a snarky tone. TFA is a destructive force in American education. Those who have achieved positions of power in states and districts advocate for charters and vouchers, while advocating the elimination of any due process rights for teachers. This is not a record to be proud of.
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Diane-
I agree entirely. I am troubled by Teach For America’s damage to the teaching profession, exacerbation of the rise of charters, and contribution to high-stakes testing–and the subsequent damage all this has wreaked across education. All these aspects, individually and collectively, warrant heavy, authentic scrutiny.
I appreciate your work and input; your chapter on Teach For America in “Reign of Error,” as well as many other parts of the book, was incredibly well done, and one of the reasons I include this website in my daily readings. Thank you for your reply, and more importantly for the work you and many others do to make education better for teachers, students, and communities.
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Marcus, thank you for contributing to the discussion.
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I appreciate your view, and I understand the impetus behind it. I assure you, I am a) certainly not in power and b) not trying to silence you. I am just pointing out that my belief, based on many conversations with others in TFA and outside of it, is that criticisms are much more effective when they let the substance drive them. There are plenty of valid, important criticisms of TFA without hurling words such as “indoctrination,” which are quite displaced from my personal experience as well as the experiences of those I have spoken with–nearly all of whom are openly critical of aspects of the organization.
However, especially after following other posts of yours, I recognize that we disagree on the most effective form of rhetoric. I also want to express gratitude for your commitment to strengthening the teaching profession, which is beyond admirable and much-needed.
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(my apologies for mis-posting this; it should have been a reply to the above comment by Katie Osgood)
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aggggh!
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Here’s TFA’s Baliey Reimer’s article that sparked Katie O’s attack:
http://catalyst-chicago.org/2016/01/how-bailey-reimers-kindergartners-came-to-love-testing/
And here’s a sampling of the COMMENTS:
———————
Trisha Glover Beaty • a month ago
— “This is an absolutely disgusting article.
“Shame on this terrible teacher! Please do the world a favor & resign from teaching! My children don’t want to come to school to be tested. Did this gal learn anything about early childhood development in college?! I couldn’t even finish reading this garbage! Puke!!”
– – – – – – –
alicemercer • a month ago
— “Build a culture around testing”… ?
“NO, your job is to build a love of learning, an environment where students feel safe and can take risks. FIve year olds concerned with improving test scores won’t get that.”
– – – – – – –
Mick • a month ago
— “Congratulations on capitalizing on the natural desire of 5-year-olds to please adults and turning them into little numeric zombies. How beautifully soulless and unfulfilled they’ll be. Way to go, Teach!”
– – – – – – –
MelIssa Scott • a month ago
— “Bailey, in the off chance that you’re reading these comments, I’m inviting you out for a cup of coffee. I too work with 5-year-olds in Chicago, but in an environment where children aren’t expected to take formal tests until 3rd grade. Because my 5-year-olds don’t take tests they instead spend their time building circuits, constructing rockets, mixing paint, grappling with the complexities of human relationships, and working together towards common goals. It sounds as if you work in a very different sort of environment, and I imagine we could learn a lot from one another.
“Let’s talk about it over coffee some time. Message me.”
– – – – – – –
Toni Becker Elvis Veizi • a month ago
— “Only in this alternate universe we live in today does harming innocent five-year-olds mean ‘setting them up for success later in life.’ ”
– – – – – – –
Andrew Pfaff • a month ago
— “A piece like this is better suited to the Onion. I wish I’d read it in the Onion.”
– – – – – – –
Mitchell Robinson • a month ago
— “I’m embarrassed for this young woman, who has uncritically swallowed the reformer agenda, and is putting her students through an awful lot of dog and pony shows for absolutely nothing.
“Of course, 5-year-olds don’t come to school automatically loving testing. As educators, it’s our job to build that appreciation and understanding.”
“It’s our job as teachers to help children develop a love for learning, not an appreciation for testing.
“What a horrible perversion of the true purpose of education.”
– – – – – – –
chris moore Mitchell Robinson • a month ago
— “I believe she was paid to swallow the reform agenda and then regurgitate it for us in the form of this blatantly paid for essay. It’s like a paid for articles in fashion magazine…they look like articles, they sound like articles but they are really just well crafted commercials…and this one isn’t even all that well crafted. We can tell it’s fake.”
– – – – – – –
Jinia Parker Mitchell Robinson • a month ago
— “Don’t feel embarrassed! The author’s job and previous employment all point to this just being part of her job. Teach Plus and TFA. I think you are very kind Mitchell to give such a benefit of the doubt here!”
– – – – – – –
Elvis Veizi Mitchell Robinson • a month ago
— “Why should a love of learning be mutually exclusive from developing an appreciation and understanding of testing? Do we need to choose one or the other?”
– – – – – – –
Mitchell Robinson Elvis Veizi • a month ago
— “That someone would seriously ask that question tells us how low the bar of expectations has sunk with respect to discourse on education. “an appreciation and understanding of testing” as an educational goal? for kindergarten students? who could possibly care about working to make this a goal?
“And for many children–and adults for that matter–testing is the thing that destroys the love of learning. suggesting that we wouldn’t choose learning over testing is simply absurd. only a corporate reformer or Pearson employee would even dream that one up.”
– – – – – – –
Mitchell Robinson Elvis Veizi • a month ago
— “That sounds like a Teach for America talking point… ”
– – – – – – –
Mitchell Rubinstein Elvis Veizi • a month ago
— “Elvis, WE don’t need to chose one or the other. Ms. Reimer has. She never seems to mention or imply ANYTHING at all to indicate that a “love of learning” is of any importance in her teaching. Just testing, data, and measurement. I agree with Mr. Robinson. I pity this woman. But not as much as I pity her students.”
– – – – – – –
Mick • a month ago
— “Congratulations on capitalizing on the natural desire of 5-year-olds to please adults and turning them into little numeric zombies. How beautifully soulless and unfulfilled they’ll be. Way to go, Teach!”
– – – – – – –
Caitlin • a month ago
— “What in the actual hell is wrong with this woman? She obviously has ZERO interest in the well being and development of the students in her class, and no idea what early childhood education/education in general should be about… ”
– – – – – – –
Jinia Parker Caitlin • a month ago
— “TFA & Teach Plus..not in for the kids”
– – – – – – –
elteacher Jinia Parker • a month ago
— “Seriously? Sounds like you haven’t meant very many of the teachers you’re insulting.”
– – – – – – –
Emily Amanda elteacher • a month ago
— “Sadly we have. For the few years, well, months they can actually stick around. Then we are the folks who put these children’s lives back together when they bail -or teach them that they are equal to that number on a page. The comments you see here are from life-long educators, enraged at this edu-tourist with what, a handful of years at it, who is telling us to do something truly poisonous to children.
“I don’t even tell my AP students to ‘love the test.’ I get them to out-think it, to be craftier than it, but to never wrap up their self-worth in a score. Because they are amazing human beings, and no test can possibly measure the fullness of their potential.
– – – – – – – – –
Marblemania • a month ago
— “Ah a Teach Plus teacher, so no early childhood background, no understanding of developmentally appropriate curriculum, no knowledge of authentic assessment, no appreciation for child centered learning. “They LOVE testing! We have to show them how great tests are!” Montessori is spinning in her grave and I’m weeping for five year olds everywhere. This isn’t teaching folks; this is drill and skill and so 19th century. Scabs as teachers. Parents, if you have a teacher like this, run for the hills.”
– – – – – – – –
Vikki Prince Rosich Marblemania • a month ago
— “My kids did Montessori (taught by my sister-in-law) and I am so glad they did! Now that I have pulled them from being in school all day, we work on what they choose to get done (with a nudge from Mom) and they get to PLAY. As all kids should. not come home from 7.5 hrs of school, just to do more homework. (PS – Rush Revere just helped my 10 yr old tell me little stories about the American Revolution)”
– – – – – – – –
Vikki Prince Rosich Vikki Prince Rosich • a month ago
— “Right now they are setting to Apples to Apples Junior so we can work on vocabulary – and not from some listed picked by someone who has never met them.”
– – – – – – – –
MelIssa Scott • a month ago
— “Bailey, in the off chance that you’re reading these comments, I’m inviting you out for a cup of coffee. I too work with 5-year-olds in Chicago, but in an environment where children aren’t expected to take formal tests until 3rd grade. Because my 5-year-olds don’t take tests they instead spend their time building circuits, constructing rockets, mixing paint, grappling with the complexities of human relationships, and working together towards common goals. It sounds as if you work in a very different sort of environment, and I imagine we could learn a lot from one another. Let’s talk about it over coffee some time. Message me.”
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On the heels of Bailey Reimer’s excrutiatingly tone-deaf article, here’s another TFA-originated masterpiece that argues that for kids, being homelessness is “an asset” for kids.
Yep, that’s what it says. (though, for some reason, the TFA-er refers to homeless students as “unhoused students” … more Orwellian wordplay … sort of like describing “used cars” as “pre-owned.”)
https://www.teachforamerica.org/blog/changing-conversations-unhoused-students?app_data=%22pi%22%3A%2246940_1407251376_1476363824%22%2C%22pt%22%3A%22twitter%22
SHANI JACKSON DOWELL, TFA Corps Member: “And further, how can schools help unhoused kids maximize the useful and heroic skills they’re learning watching their parents navigate these challenges?
“What if our schools could see the trying time of homelessness as an asset of experience and knowledge that a child brings to school? Is it possible to create an educational structure for unhoused children that honors their needs like the fact that they may need to sleep more during the day to compensate for the sleep they missed at night?”
——————–
Acclaimed principal and activist Carol Burris was dumbfounded, responding, “Shameful. Work to fight homelessness, not celebrate it.”
Here’s Joe Bower chiming in:
http://www.joebower.org/2014/08/shameful-blog-from-teach-for-america.html
JOE BOWER:
“As I came out of my summer social media hibernation, I came across a Teach for America blog post titled ‘Changing Conversations For Unhoused Students.’
“Actually, it wasn’t the title that got my attention. It was this excerpt from a tweet:
” ‘What if our schools could see the trying time of homelessness as an asset of experience and knowledge that a child brings to school?’
“Here are 3 thoughts:
“1. This attitude can only come from a position of privilege. If being homeless is such an asset, then Teach For America will waste no time making homelessness a part of their 5-week training program. Of course, this is almost as absurd as spinning homelessness as an asset.
“People who like to say ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’ need to remember that lemonade requires a lot of sugar and sugar is expensive. They also need to remember that it’s easier to pull up your socks when you own socks.
“Homeless people don’t sit around talking about how being homeless is an asset. The only people who can afford to to talk like this are those who have a home with a twisted view of the world.
“2. Words reveal agendas. Used cars are also pre-owned but they are only called pre-owned by those who have an agenda — people who have a car that they don’t want anymore have a used car — those who want to sell you that car, call it pre-owned. Only those with an agenda re-label used to pre-owned, homeless to unhoused and hungry to food insecure.
“3. When bad things happen to children, they are not assets to be romanticized — they are problems to be solved. I’m all for rethinking problems and changing the conversation when that means we solve old problems with new solutions, but we should all object when rethinking problems and changing the conversation become code for seeing problems as assets that we don’t need to fix.
“Here’s what I mean:
“I taught four years in a children’s inpatient psychiatric assessment unit where students were admitted by a psychiatrist for many unfortunate reasons.Too many of these children had very bad things happen to them — some had no parents, some were sexually abused and some were psychotic (these are just three examples).
“Can you imagine changing the conversation and asking how being sexually abused or psychotic could be seen as an asset for a child?
“Neither can I.
“Being sexually abused, psychotic or homeless are problems to be solved. Spinning these awful things as assets is an abdication of our responsibility to make things more equitable for children. These children don’t need spin (and they don’t need grit) — they need their basic needs met.
“New York principal Carol Burris gets the last word on all this:
” ‘Shameful. Work to fight homelessness, not celebrate it.’ “
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Look into lifton’s 8 criteria for mind control. TFA is a check off on most of them.
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I also commented on Bailey Reimer’s notions of good teaching as taught to her by TFA. http://www.stonepooch.com/ablog/proxy-love/
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Just wrote about the results of a survey by National Society of High School Scholars where 18,000 millennials rated their “Dream Job” where Teach for America was the ONLY choice for education when there were choices a local hospital, local fire department or local police department….no entry for a local school:
“What is surprising is that the field of education did not have a Local Public School as an option for respondents. Respondents could choose to be a doctor, fireman, police officer….but not a teacher? Instead, what was offered for the education option was the organization Teach for America. While many public school systems require educational degrees, the Teach for America promotion on its website states:
“A degree in education isn’t a prerequisite for you to apply to the corps. However, nearly all corps members must receive a state-issued teaching credential, certificate, license, or permit to be hired by a school and must be considered “highly qualified” under federal law.”
What do students who have attended or plan to attend a four year college for education, understand about Teach for America as a career choice? “Highly qualified” for Teach for America can be the “rigorous summer training program and extensive coaching”, a very different training than college coursework (undergraduate or graduate) in instruction. When the NSHSS offers Teach for America on a list of 200 companies, they communicate that an education is associated with a “company” rather than a profession.”
FULL POST: http://usedbooksinclass.com/2016/02/28/army-beats-build-a-bear-but-local-public-education-missing/
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