Today I told someone that I was going to become a teacher after graduating. Actually I told quite a few people this--and most of their responses were similar, 'oh a teacher'. Then when I said I will be a Teach For America teacher, their face expressions are such a dramatic sigh.
Well let me clear a few things up by starting with my choice to become a part of Teach For America.
Teach for America is controversial for many reasons, and one of the reasons being that it is often seen as a thing that recent college graduates apply to who can't seem to find out what to do after college. It's a sort of a 'I'll just teach until I find something better to do'. This is certainly true for a lot of people and even some who I know personally. This certainly is a reason for spectators to furrow their brows. And believe me, I join in on this furrowing.
Well, I am certainly not one of those people. Before I came college, I thought that I might want to become a teacher. Though it wasn't definite, I knew that teaching would be a somewhat stable position--given the teacher's union and what not. Many of the school personal who I told this to thought that this was crazy--the part about me wanting to become a teacher, not the Teacher union part. Certain that I would major in English, my mind was stuck on becoming a journalist, freelance writer, or a columnist. The ultimate goal was to start my own magazine, and probably even a newspaper--I wanted to be a media king. At the same time, I really wanted to be a poet and a novelist. Even while pursuing these dreams, I wanted to still get certified to teach as a 'just in case'. All this was during my freshman year before I ever heard of a Teach for America.
Well, things changed and they changed quickly. I became involved in University Housing, and though Michigan loves to preach diversity, ironically Michigan is far from it. As a freshman in LHSP, I was the only black male, and only very few African-Americans were present in the building at all. This was echoed around campus, except West Quad--it held the athletes. It wasn't just a lack of blacks on campus, but simply a lack of minorities, and I am using this term loosely.
Given that I come from such an underprivileged background, I was suppose to do horrible at the University of Michigan. If I told anyone I was from Finney, a look of disbelief ran across their faces, and the only reason many believed me is because why would someone lie about being from a place like Finney.
FEEL FREE TO SKIP THIS ELABORATION:
Finney probably should had been shut down years ago. My first two years in Finney, I went without an English teacher. We never had books to take home. There were no working science labs.Violence and more violence. Classrooms could be mistaken for....anything else but classrooms. But somehow I succeeded and came to UM. However, I was not class valedictorian, or even in the top 1%. I maybe was ranked somewhere around #10 or so.But I was the only one that came to UM or even an elite institution such as this. I'm pretty sure those ranked higher or even a bit lower are faring well whatever college or job they are at, but somehow Michigan, and schools like Michigan missed about 20 students or so who maybe could have been just as good as or even better than me as a student. I'm sure this is replicated in schools around the nation.
This is where I saw a problem: If I could make it here-I mean really, really exceed beyond anyone's imagination--so could just about anyone else. The problem was obviously our education system, and thus I knew that I needed to do something about it.
So my priorities quickly changed--I knew that I wanted something to do with education. So, I applied and was accepted to the School of Education.
But of course now I am not in the School of Ed. The reason being is the economical feasibility of it--or in better words, I couldn't afford it. SOE would had meant that I would had to do about 4.5-5 years of schooling instead of the 4 years that scholarships currently pay for. So, I had to drop it. But I never gave up the idea of teaching.This is where Teach For America comes along and well the rest is history.
So no, I am not doing Teach for America because I did not think I would find a job or holding off for graduate school.
This brings me to my next point--teaching as a privilege!
Believe me, it is! As stated above, I already had plans to become a media king and Poet Laureate (yeah, I'm that good lol). However, though I had skill for those things, the passion that I felt for education was not there. I cannot think of a better field to partake in than teaching. Everyone wants to change lives, and teaching gives you that opportunity. This is not to say that journalist, poets, lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc don't have the chance to impact young people's lives because we all play quite a significant role, particularly speaking about our obligation to give back. But teachers play a much bigger role than an engineer, a musician, a politician, or even a Poet Laureate ever could dream. I write this as fact and non-debatable! More than a scholarship could ever do, when it comes to making sure that each child receives an excellent education, teachers are the ones that will ensure it.
Furthermore, so when people say 'oh, a teacher', I understand that it could be translated as 'oh, you're going to be broke'. Warning to anyone who plans on wining and dining on a teachers salary, DON'T! You can't afford it. But just like me, and many others, we understand that.
Because I do have a Michigan education, and the expensive taste that comes along with it, I don't plan on staying a teacher forever, which is another reason why TFA is a perfect fit. Combined with the two year commitment of TFA, I plan on teaching for about 4 years. While teaching, I will be pursuing my masters in education administration and policy. Although I think teaching is the most important in education, I realize that policy has a lot to do with what goes on in the classroom. For example, the unstoppable teacher's union ( I am no longer a fan, sshh, don't tell nobody though). More importantly, I know that policy and administration is the money truck! But seriously, I realized above all other things that if a better future is are hopes (yeah, cliche, whatever) then it needs to start with education.
And this is why I want to be apart of TFA and become a teacher, Bitches.
Excuse the grammatical errors--it's 5am and I am writing this using my iPhone while laying down.
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