Crash course?

When Beth Lowenstein was accepted by the Teach for America program to teach special education in Baltimore's inner city, she expected her new job to be the beginning of a career in teaching.

But Lowenstein, a 1993 graduate of Connecticut College, soon found herself juggling myriad tasks and responsibilities that would have easily overwhelmed a veteran educator.

Alone, teaching a special education class at an unfamiliar school, Lowenstein scrambled to keep up.

"I was definitely struggling. My school was not supporting me but making me feel really stressed and pressured," she said. "They were totally laying it on thick, and me being 23 and [in my] first [year] out of college and not really knowing, I was like, 'OK, OK, I'll do it.' That was what was so hard and I couldn't deal."

Unable to cope with the situation, Lowenstein eventually left the school. She did not return to the teaching profession for seven years. "It didn't totally turn me off [from teaching], but it certainly did for a few years," she said.

With seniors tackling the task of finding jobs, many look to nonprofit organizations like Teach for America, founded by Wendy Kopp '88. The program places recent college graduates in under-served school districts across the country to teach for two years.

"Overwhelming is probably the best word to describe the first days of teaching," said Nora Meltzer '99, who teaches at Dr. William H. Horton School in Newark.

Though the program has been "tremendously positive" for her, she said that not everyone is as fortunate. "That's a big thing with the program. I think experiences can vary so greatly — the principal, how welcoming they are and how welcoming the school is."

Kyle Waide, director of public relations for Teach for America, said program coordinators are aware of the many obstacles young teachers often face during the first year.

Consequently, he said his organization has an intensive selection process to find teachers who can deal with the challenge of teaching for the first time. "We screen people and the people we accept and select into our program are individuals," he said.

"We look at people who have had academic success. We also look at people who have records of leadership. Eighty-seven percent are leaders in their schools or community," Waide said. "That is just as important. Teaching is fundamentally a leadership position. It's about setting a vision, it's about investing the people around you in that vision and it's about going above and beyond to help everyone meet the goals of that vision."

But vision does not always translate to successful teaching, and some critics say the Teach for America program fails to adequately groom its participants to be effective educators.

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For the program's five-week training course, new Teach for America corps members assemble and get their first classroom experience teaching summer school.

While working with the students — many of whom are underprivileged — new corps members collaborate with experienced teachers and Teach for America alumni. A group of four new participants team-teaches a summer school class together.

Katherine Boles, lecturer on education at the Harvard graduate school for education, said the Teach for America training program is too short to train a teacher adequately.

"It's like training a brain surgeon in six weeks," she said. "I'm not so sure that a person in the suburbs wants that kind of person teaching their children."

Boles said she believes Teach for America would benefit from a more extensive training system.

"What Teach for America does not provide is support, instruction, pedagogical techniques and curriculum that you've got to have to be a good teacher," she said. "It's very minimal."

But Waide said the program leaves teachers with techniques they can apply in the classroom. "Our program provides our corps members with a very strong foundation on which they can build," he said. Frank Lind, a senior at Cornell University, is in the process of applying to Teach for America. He said he worries about being sent with little training to teach at a school already suffering from limited resources.

"It's inadequate preparation for a very serious situation," he said. "I know they're looking for students that can deal with great challenges and work long hours under tough conditions, but I wonder if that is really taking enough care to help the schools."

Waide said the program's planners would naturally prefer a longer period to train new teachers. "In an ideal world, of course we would," he said. "At the same time we feel our program provides our corps members with a very strong foundation on which they can build."

According to Meltzer, no training period is long enough to fully prepare a person for the job. "Training to become a teacher is sort of like a paradox, because I don't think you can really fully train to be a teacher without standing in front of a class as a teacher," she said.

"After the summer institute, you're just about as trained as anyone who steps in front of a classroom is going to be. Teaching by its nature is just something you have to jump into. You learn by the day," Meltzer said.

Brian Johnson '99, who teaches in a rural Louisiana school, said he learned as he taught.

"[Teach for America is] good about training you how to teach, and more importantly how to find out what you need to know and how to find resources," he said. "Laying that groundwork during the institute has really helped me to develop as a better teacher throughout my twoyear commitment."

Justin Browne '01 said he is considering the program because of its mission. "I think it sounds like such an amazing opportunity. I have a pretty big heart for service," he said. "The fact that I'd be able to work with kids and be able to help people would be just an amazing opportunity for me."

Teach for America received more than 4,100 applications last year and accepted just over 1,000 applicants. Approximately 900 of them joined the corps.

Teach for America now has about 2,000 teachers in both rural and urban schools across the country. Its organizers hope to double the program's size during the next three years, Waide said.

Despite the program's growing popularity, Teach for America teachers are not always made to feel welcome at the schools where they are placed, said some participants. Indeed, some said they felt neglected by their school's administrators.

Boles said that sense of neglect could stem from participants' limited term of commitment. "Principals aren't putting much energy into them because they're going to be gone in [two] years," she said.

Waide said it is rare for principals and teachers to treat Teach for America members as inferiors. "I'm sure that exists occasionally, just as it must exist at any school," he said. "[Corps members] work diligently to enter the community at their school and rely on the advice and expertise of other teachers."

Waide said that when he taught for Teach for America, he often turned to veteran teachers for assistance, and they benefited from his new ideas.

"That immediately put us on the same page," he said. "I established some very key relationships that helped buoy me through my first year."

Susan Ballantyne, principal at John Marshall Fundamental School in Compton, Calif., said teachers trained by Teach for America have had a very positive impact on her school.

"A lot of my colleagues don't like Teach for America in our schools because they only stay normally for two years," Ballantyne said. "But what they bring in those two years I will take because they bring so much excitement to the classroom. They are just dynamic people."

"Students can relate to them because they're young," Ballantyne continued. "They take the kids on weekend trips, or they go to ball games with them during the week. They offer tutoring without being paid. They really go the extra mile, and they really love the kids."

Mary Kay Dunning '99, a teacher at Miller Street Elementary in Newark, said she had enjoyed her Teach for America experience, despite the long hours that have come with it. "I knew it would take a lot of energy and a lot of work," she said.

"I've loved it, but obviously I haven't loved every minute," she said. "I knew this wasn't going to make me happy initially . . . but I think in retrospect this is the time when I'm going to do something like this — have the energy and luxury to do something like this."

Beverly Hamilton-Chandler, director of University career services, said other Princeton students who have participated in the Teach for America program also have reacted positively to it.

"It's always going to be a trial. I think any program leaves itself open to the level of preparation. You've got an assignment that's very challenging, and you feel overwhelmed," she said.

But for Lowenstein, memories of Teach for America will always be tempered by regret.

"They just choose people that are really enthusiastic and dedicated and creative and innovative. I mean, the caliber of applicant is high," she said.

"They get really motivated people involved and, depending on a lot of things these teachers either sink or swim. And it's too bad because every person that goes through Teach for America has the potential to be an excellent teacher."