Op-Ed The truth behind all those Teach For America flyers

Author: Jessica Cox

It would be impossible to miss the many Teach For America posters around campus, or the chalkings, the info tables and the Campus advertisements. Sure you've seen them and you've seen the statistics:

Nearly 1,000 low-income students started school without teachers in Phoenix this fall, and that number was over 5,000 students in the New Orleans Recovery District. Fourth graders in low-income areas are already on average two to three grade levels behind their peers in higher-income areas. While students in low-income districts are struggling to read at the Berenstein Bears' level, their peers in the higher-income suburbs are breezing through the Harry Potter books. With teacher shortages in these communities, what chance do these children have in overcoming the way our education system leaves them behind?

Compounding our nation's education gap are the many struggles these kids fight outside the classroom. Children in the communities Teach For America serves face everything from homelessness to a lack of basic healthcare, from gang violence outside their schools to parents who have to work several jobs. Entering kindergarten, these kids are facing adult challenges that are still foreign to most of us in our early twenties.

There is no easy answer to this problem, and there might not be any answer at all, but that doesn't mean we can't change things.

Since 1990, nearly 80 Middlebury alumni of all majors and career interests have committed two years to teaching in these low-income classrooms across the country through Teach For America. These teachers not only get their students on grade level, they get them ahead of their grade level. They also create tutoring programs, clubs and sports teams to offer their students the opportunities we have been lucky to enjoy.

Today, nine members of the class of 2007 have already committed to Teach For America next year, and even more will have been accepted by the time you read this. Teach For America has become one of the single-largest employers of Middlebury graduates, as recently featured in Fortune magazine and The New York Times. Because of the academic gains they inspire in their students, and the life-changing influence they have on them, Middlebury seniors are among the most sought-after candidates by Teach For America recruiters.

The incredible inequities in our nation's education system and the realization that I could have a life-changing impact on "my students," is what led me to join the 2007 Teach For America Chicago corps. Tonight, Teach For America Alumni Audrey Geisler, a 2004 Chicago corps member, and Jen Ellis, a 2000 North Carolina corps member, will be on campus for this year's final Teach For America event in John C. McCardell Bicentennial Hall 219 at 5:30 p.m. Students of all years and majors are invited to attend. In addition to seniors for the 2007 corps, Teach For America is also seeking underclassmen interested in paid summer positions at their training institutes across the country.

The student-centered discussion tonight will let you in on the truth behind all of those Teach For America flyers: You can land a leadership position out of college. You can give something back. You can change things.

Jessica Cox '07 is a religion major from Missoula, Mont. and a Teach For America Campaign Manager.