November 13, 2007

Sandra ("Sandy") Barnett entered Tulane in 2002, intending to go into
the social sciences to be on the fast track to law school, and she
eventually ended up as a Political Science major. She was active in on
and off-campus activities, including Greek Life and tutoring at the
International School of Louisiana. Sandy wrote her senior honors thesis
on current US policy to alleviate poverty and thought she might head
straight to law school. After working in a law firm after Hurricane
Katrina, however, she decided to explore other options and applied for
Teach For America in the fall of her senior year at Tulane. She is now
living in New York City, teaching Pre-K in the Bronx, and lamenting the
loss of mild New Orleans winters. :

Stephanie looked up at me, pointing to her milk carton, and said, “Ms. Barnett, Ms. Barnett, look! M!” I couldn’t believe it. Something that I had taught was actually learned. One of my 26 “busy bees,” the character I’ve given to my Pre-K classroom, had recognized the letter I taught the previous week. This was a first. Grinning, I walked over to Stephanie and praised her for her miraculous discovery of the letter M. I then showed the rest of the class what Stephanie had found on her milk carton, and suddenly a chorus of children’s voices started piping up from the breakfast table: “M, Ms. Barnett! I found an M,” said Gabriel. “R!” said Allen. “S!” said Isabella. They were learning, after all. What a relief.

This breakfast occurred over a month into the school year, and it was the first indication that I, a recent political science graduate from Tulane, was doing something right at my school in the South Bronx.

As a political science graduate, I had no background in teaching when I moved to New York City as a 2007 Teach For America Corps Member. I arrived at St. John’s University to participate in Teach For America’s six week training program (appropriately termed “Institute” by the organization and, more colloquially, “Boot Camp” by us poor participants) determined to learn how to be the best teacher I could be and ready to make a difference in my future students’ lives. The challenges that I knew would be presented to me were merely obstacles to overcome. I was going to be Super Teacher, plucking people from poverty, one lesson at a time.

It turns out, however, that teaching is unfathomably challenging (and I thought writing a political science thesis was bad. Ha!) From lesson plans (the easiest part of teaching) to classroom management (the hardest), nothing that I learned over the summer could have adequately prepared me for the reality of teaching in an underprivileged, inner-city school for a whole year. Regardless of the rigorous training I received over the summer (which included teaching summer school and taking classes), I wasn’t completely prepared to change my children’s educational lives when I walked in on day one. In fact, I had seen none of the fruits of my teaching labor until Stephanie piped up with her “M!” For example, the Stephanie of six weeks ago was the girl who got so angry with me for asking her to get in line that she stuffed herself—headfirst—into a small plastic crate. When I went to pull her out, she screamed, hit, and kicked anything within her reach, including me. Watching the transformation of her and other students from week one to week nine has been incredible. Who knew that letter identification could be so personally fulfilling?

In thinking back to why I decided to apply to Teach For America, I recall craving this feeling of making a difference. During my post-Katrina year, I worked at a law firm as a file clerk/legal assistant and did not experience any personal fulfillment in my daily duties whatsoever. I was also bored. Teach For America offered me the opportunity to challenge myself both mentally and physically. Making the decision to join the movement was like deciding between two sections of the same class. The first class has the easier professor who demands less work and more than likely guarantees you an “A” if you just show up for class and turn in assignments on time. I took some of these in college and remember very little about both the professors themselves and the content of the class. The second class has the more challenging professor who demands that you work hard for your “A,” forcing you to think about what you’re learning, not just memorizing facts and regurgitating them on an exam. These classes tend to be more interesting and therefore more memorable. Teach For America is this second class. It is challenging. It is rewarding. And you can’t just show up and get the “A.” This is real work, but it’s work worth doing.