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Originally Posted by Senusret I
If you were an education major, why are you in TFA? I felt like people in TFA generally wouldn't meet the NCLB requirements otherwise due to their majors/coursework.
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I think you are right as far as the majors and coursework, but I think in general TFA types maybe smarter and better educated generally than many of the folks who go straight through with education majors. And, there are enough non-traditional paths to certification now in many states that if you try TFA, and like it, you can get full certification later.
However, I think folks should keep in mind that TFA will be in schools that are hardest to staff: fully certified teachers choose not to go there and that's probably for a reason. You may go in expecting a Dangerous Minds/ Freedom Writers experience, but I'd imagine everyone who teachs there hopes for that, and yet, those results are the exception. It's important to believe that you can make a difference, but it's important not to be delusional about it. It will be hard work every day; the successes are likely to be small; and to really make a systematic difference would require more than two years.
Completing the TFA contract would probably give you new insights into human nature, management, educational policy, and social class in America, which, if you think about it, could serve you well in many other fields later.
It might be a mistake, though, to use TFA as your experiment to see if you liked teaching generally. It not likely to be a representative sample.