Recruiting in Classrooms???
The Answer Sheet over at the Washington Post recently ran an editorial by a professor at Fordham University about his reasons for not allowing Teach for America to recruit in his college classroom. Mainly, he objects because TFA focuses on short-term rather than long-term commitments to teaching and as a result, he claims, “an organization which began by promoting idealism and educational equity has become, to all too many of its recruits, a vehicle for profiting from the misery of America’s poor.” Like this professor, I don’t allow TFA to recruit in my classrooms at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Apparently, many of my colleagues feel the same way. When I noted this on Twitter and Facebook, the response was substantial. Faculty from across the country said “me too,” “me too,” though only a few elaborated on why. Those that did expound on their practices revealed that TFA’s strategy of in-classroom recruitment may have unintended consequences. ...