"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Dave Green: "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Teach for America and Its Inadequate Version of Teacher Training"

Continuing our teach-in from last weekend's Occupation at ED, next up is Dave Green, who does field supervision of teacher interns for Fordham U. in NYC.  This is a really well-crafted presentation by someone who has seen TFA up close and personal.  Please watch and learn.

The KIPP chain gangs and their emulators could not exist without the exploited naive white missionary types from TFA who believe they are on a moral mission (or at least earning service points to get into Harvard Law).  And so were the white missionaries from earlier times who were used by economic interests to make native Americans compliant and, therefore, complicit in their own exploitation, subjugation, and eventual extermination.  Today the corporate colonialism of urban America is led by KIPP and TFA, whose minstrel version of education for minorities represents the last vestiges of Empire gone wrong.


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2 comments:

  1. Jim, Teach for America is an idea gone haywire. Dave Green forgot to mention "why" young people from schools like Harvard, Yale, etc. go into TFA. Guess what? It is to avoid having to pay back their college loans. It the same reason states, like New York, take Race-to-the-Top bucks in exchange for testing pre-kindergarten children and evaluating teachers & principals with standardized tests. As the song goes in Cabaret, "MONEY-MONEY-MONEY."

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  2. Anonymous3:27 AM

    From Koch brothers support (commandeering?) of PBS to Exxon-Mobil being behind the National Math Science Initiative... Union busting school district leadership, TFA, and the corporate mind set taking over my profession... It is truly time to act. Thanks for sharing the message.

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