To the Editor:

After reading Bridget McElroy’s article, “A Valuable Lesson for Teach for America” [The Hoya, A3, Feb. 28, 2014] I thought it imperative to share my own perspective as a teacher and 2013 member of Teach for America.

First, please don’t tell me what I fail to consider as a teacher. In your article, you criticize “TFA corps members … for failing to consider the entrenched socioeconomic and racial inequities facing underprivileged students.” If there is one thing that TFA focuses on, it’s the challenges facing underprivileged students.

During the five-week training program, TFA requires that each of its members partake in diversity, community and achievement sessions. These sessions focus on classroom equity and social justice and allow corps members to talk about these issues openly. Concurrently, corps members are collaborating with three other teachers in the running of an actual classroom. DCA sessions allow corps members to reflect on how their teaching “considers the entrenched socioeconomic and racial inequities facing underprivileged students” in real time.

Once in your actual classroom, TFA hosts a daylong training session every two months. During that time, we have sessions on “identity, diversity & inclusiveness.” These sessions are tailored to each corps member’s understanding of their own racial and socioeconomic identity and their realization of the identity of their students. Corps members work together with staff members and fellow teachers to better understand the specific hardships facing our students and to address those concerns in the classroom.

My final concern is with your use of the word “temptation.” I wasn’t drawn to TFA for any other reason than that I wanted to affect the lives of 180 students upon leaving Georgetown. I do not believe that I am changing the whole state of education simply by being a teacher. Waking at 4 a.m. every day to arrive at school early enough to prepare for the day is not tempting. Working 15 or more hours each weekend designing a curriculum centered on social justice is not tempting. No, tempting is not the right word: It is rewarding. Yes, that is it. TFA is rewarding because I am affecting the lives of 180 students every day. I am changing education not from the outside but from within.

That is where the real struggle is every day: The struggle for educational reform takes place in room 814 at Canyon Springs High School. Feel free to stop by and learn a thing or two.

D.J. Wise
COL ’13