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Minding the Gap
By Sarah Seltzer, WireTap
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| 30 Young Teachers Surveyed About Their Experiences: |
Based on your teaching experience, do you think there is a strong racist/classist element in the U.S. education system? 79 percent said "yes," 11 percent said "no." Do you feel that students' needs are adequately and in good faith addressed by the public education system? 90 percent said "no," 10 percent said "yes, at their specific schools, but not in general," and 0 percent said "yes." Teachers ranked five potential policy changes. The highest ranked were "smaller class sizes" followed by "more support for troubled students." "Vouchers" and "increased teacher salary" were the least popular. Young Teachers in Their Own Words: "Teaching needs to be seen as a profession for smart people, and teachers need to be respected in society." "The kids ... curse at their teachers, and cut and interrupt class with impunity. This situation will likely be the force that drives me out of the classroom." "One of the most powerful nations in the world ... and yet, I have a classroom full of 16- and 17-year-olds who can barely read. It breaks my heart." "My kids are so desperate to be taught and so eager to be told they are doing a good job ... Sometimes they drive me crazy, but it's because they are kids who haven't been given enough to meet their developing needs." "I think it's a little bizarre to send a mostly white cadre of young people into these schools." "I like being young in a young school. There's an energy and enthusiasm that I think would be lacking in a school with mostly older, somewhat more cynical staff." "As long as the focus is on discipline above all else, schools will remain more prisons than schools." "In general, I think my students would describe their young teachers as buddies and a shoulder to lean on, rather than authority figures and serious educators." |
Getting Testy
New teachers find they often have to teach students -- no matter how old -- how to think critically and solve problems, as well as learn the subject.
"They've been taught that learning is something you can take home in the palm of your hands," says Anders Meyers, who is entering his third year with the Baltimore Teaching Residency. Kids will tell you if they don't completely understand how to do something, they won't do it. That instinct to stare at a blank screen and struggle has been drilled out of them."
Meyers and his fellow teachers say that, over the years in public schools, students are taught to fill in blanks on worksheets and cram for multiple-choice tests, and the only break they get from this are me-centered creative assignments that leave them without crucial reasoning skills. Telling students what terms will gain them points on a state test's essay does not enable them to construct a thorough argument. But in the No Child Left Behind era, testing is what matters, and schools have no choice.
"Pretty much from November all the way through March, there's nothing else going on at my school [but test prep]," said Jobson. "The students were so sick and tired of it. It's a lot of hours to spend bent over a desk with a pencil."
Having to tailor lessons to the test and help students gain missing skills only compounds the most universal problem teachers face: managing their classroom. Martinez feels that separating lesson planning from classroom management during training, which most programs do, is a mistake. She feels that teachers need to practice making lessons accessible to students whose processing ability may be slower than assumed.
All the teachers interviewed agreed that the tips they got during training were virtually useless: They had to learn on the fly how to utilize their own personalities to lead their classes. Young teachers from privileged backgrounds can find that the strict approach they are advised to take by older educators doesn't work, because teenagers are savvy and can see who's faking being tough.
Even if they can't command authority right away, young teachers serve as the earpiece for their students' concerns, which are many. "They constantly complained about the metal detectors," said Michelle Northrup, another teaching fellow. Jobson noted how desperately her students craved extracurricular activities, a place to socialize with friends and develop self-esteem without the pressure of academic classes. Meyers said that some students at his school knew that they were always stuck with new, inexperienced teachers. But underlying all these complaints on the part of students, teachers felt there was a craving for sustained individual attention and support.
A Band-Aid
Most of the wisdom young teachers gained is gained after trial and error. "Basically, I was given chalk and an eraser and told 'good luck,'" said Northrup, who ended up staying at her school for three years. Meyers recalls having a troubled student scream and shout during the first session of his class, and having no idea what to do. Jobson and Martinez were bowled over by paucity of basic knowledge their students possessed. But all of these teachers, despite initial misgivings, saw results in their classrooms and connected with students. They ended up feeling proud of what they did and committed to change.
As much as teachers complain about the idealistic jargon they listen to during their summer of training, they feel that they come in less jaded than older teachers who have been beat down by years in the public schools, and their energy and drive helps them persevere.
But they worry that their passion isn't enough to effect the kind of drastic change that's necessary. They wonder if policy makers are using them as a band-aid, an excuse not to pump the needed money and resources into schools. And they wish the deck weren't stacked so high against them. At some schools where teaching recruitment programs are popular, third- or fourth-year teachers are "veterans," (PDF) a testament to the frustrations faced on the job.
One hope for education may be what these teachers do once they get older. One of the guiding ideas of TFA is that its alumni will become movers and shakers in the political and financial world, and their memories of teaching will encourage them to enact educational reforms. Within a generation, we could be talking about a different, more practical set of changes for our schools. "Smaller class size, less crowding, cleaner schools. These are simple things to ask for," said Northrup.
Find out more about issues facing young teachers in these articles:
The trouble with middle school
The New Teachers Project bypasses traditional certification
Lawsuit threatens status of TFA teachers
Sarah Seltzer is a freelance writer living in New York City. She hopes to someday write a book about inequality in American schools.