Teach for America reviews

This was and probably will be the toughest job of my life. I stuck it out for two years but decided I'm not meant to be a teacher, at least to inner-city children. They deserve more. After only six weeks of training in the summer, I never felt completely prepared to adequately give my kids the education they truly needed, and that feeling only grew as the school years went on. The placement and interview process at the beginning was a complete nightmare-- several of my friends ended up not being able to teach at all that year. As far as I'm concerned, and especially due to budget cuts, the process has not improved. Long hours, little pay, little recognition. Teach for America should not be a stepping stone to law school or graduate school. It should be treated as a pathway to building a nationwide corps of excellent teachers. Unfortunately, both the organization and corps members do not treat TFA this way. All throughout my second year, I heard people talking about their interviews with McKinsey and other big shot consulting firms and business schools. I would say, for the time, tears and love you'll put into this job, only do it if you know in your heart that you could be a teacher for longer than 5 years. If, however, you complete your 2 years and decide it's not for you, then fine. But don't use TFA as a resume builder. These kids deserve more than that.

TFA often speaks of the experience as a difficult one, but they rarely go into the specifics of why it's so difficult. Don't expect to end work at 3pm like you may have believed teachers do when you were growing up. Especially your first year of teaching, expect to work upwards of 12 hours a day or more. Those 12 hours are grueling, and you'll probably come home exhausted from having to deal with poor administration at your school and disrespectful students. Also, once you've been in TFA long enough, everyone talks about the achievement gap using the same buzzwords and offering the same solutions. Often there isn't much creativity in approaching the issue. For your first year of teaching (especially your first semester), there will be virtually no work-life balance for most. Many of my fellow corps members considered quitting (some did) because it was too much work and too stressful. It's not an easy job, but you have to really consider it a "calling" if you want to join. Don't join TFA because you think it will help you get into business school (it won't) or will look good on your resume (it's not worth it). Join TFA if you really believe in it's mission and helping kids.