NYC Students Failing

@hhusted this is surprising as I thought Bloomberg had overhauled the education system in the city. Wasn't the Teach for America program widely promoted during his previous terms? Its an acknowledged fact that the city needs more schools and good ones at that.Charter schools in the city have been quite successful but I read recently that there are opponents to these as well .. I guess there are various vested interests at play and thus cannot be one simple solution to improvement of the students' performances.

Teach For America has the downside of putting less-experienced teachers in classrooms that need them most. The teachers are often brilliant young individuals, but it is difficult to make up for the lack of experience.

Really? @ajadedidealist I thought the teachers in the program brought in a different perspective especially since they excel in their fields.

@uptowngirl But they are usually kids fresh out of college with a lack of teaching experience.

@NeverSleeps I agree that young people just learning the ropes and figuring out how to be responsible adults themselves are not necessarily the best people to put in the classrooms in underserved areas. They do have a lot of idealism and energy, though. Maybe that does the trick.

I know a social worker, and even when she was first starting out and had little experience besides college, her youth gave her a certain appeal for the kids. She would overhear them talking about how awesome it was that their social worker knew what music they listened to and whatnot... they could relate to her better because of her age. The same types of kids are being taught through the Teach for America program, and the fact that the program selects only the cream-of-the-crop college kids can only help with the initial adjustment period. I think Teach for America is definitely a good thing - it's not easy to get talented, intelligent people in front of a classroom.