“Three, six, nine, twelve…” Bo Armstrong enthusiastically chants to a crowd of unimpressed sixth graders. “Mr. Armstrong, I’m sick of this!” complains a student. Their faces, covered with boredom, stare blankly back at him. A series of district-wide math tests is quickly approaching and the kids are showing no intention of learning any more today. After class, feeling exhausted and defeated, Armstrong returns to the “Moon Barn” (a renovated barn turned house he now calls home in rural Mississippi). Regardless of his frustrations, every morning he puts on his coat and tie, the way he thinks a teacher should dress, and drives forty-five minutes to Friar’s Point Elementary.
Less than a year ago Bo loaded up his pickup truck and prepared to leave Clinton, New York, for the last time. Graduation was over and after studying Government and Comparative Literature in the Northeast for four years, he was eager to return to his southern roots. Gaining speed on the interstate Bo began the two-day drive to his new home. He couldn’t shake the feeling of being twenty-two, overwhelmed with opportunity and excited to start his life. It was certainly going to be a change though. Friar’s Point, Mississippi, is certainly no Hamilton College.
Bo was fortunate to attend a selective and competitive college. A recluse, he was nowhere to be found Monday through Thursday but the library or his dorm room single. Like most college seniors, he reluctantly pictured his first post-graduation job to be in one of the dreaded cubicles software technician Peter Gibbons teaches us to fear in the cult classic, Office Space. “I figured I would pursue a job as a paralegal and applied to the department of Justice in Washington, D.C.” Even though he pictured himself behind a desk, Bo knew it wasn’t for him. Instead he wanted to do something productive not only for himself, but for others. “I could work hard for a big law firm, or work hard for kids who really needed it.”
A career in teaching had been in the back of Armstrong’s head for a few years. “The thought of teaching entered my mind in the spring of my sophomore year. I was not an education major so I thought the only avenue I could pursue was in private school education. The closer I got to graduation I discovered there were other ways I could go about doing it.” A poster advertising Teach for America tacked on an announcement bulletin at his college sparked his interest in the organization.
Teach for America is an organization dedicated to ending educational inequity. Working with a sense of urgency in order to end this injustice, Teach for America hires some of America’s brightest and most promising future leaders and places them at schools in low-income communities. The Teach for America website describes education as what is supposed to be “the great equalizer and the primary vehicle for upward mobility”. The website goes on to explain that unfortunately today, where a child is born determines their educational prospects. Teach for America attracts thousands of applicants from a variety of educational backgrounds to the organization. Some choose to apply because they are not certain what they want to do with their lives, some have a passion for teaching and some are attracted to its idealistic approach to equality in education. The hiring process is long and tedious. A series of phone and personal interviews culminate in presenting a mock lesson plan to TFA staff members over a three-week period. Needless to say, Bo was ecstatic to find out he had been accepted as a Corps member.
Prior to a Corps member’s first day in the classroom, the aspiring teachers receive training at a program known as Summer Institute. Here, the members spend five to seven weeks preparing for the school year. A large number of the Teach for America members did not major in education and therefore must be certified to teach. The organization takes a “boot camp” approach and does everything in its power to prepare corps members for what they will experience. Sessions on teaching a child to read, writing a math lesson, and understanding cultural differences form long and arduous days. As Bo described it, “I personally don’t think there is anything they can do to get you ready for that first day in the classroom. TFA goes to great lengths to attempt to prepare you; it’s incredible, but just not enough.”
Friar’s Point Mississippi, is a complete 180 from the life Bo knew in New England. Located in Coahoma County (the northwestern region of the state), the rural “cotton field” of a town is a little over one square mile with a population of 1,300. Ninety-four percent of residents are African-American and almost half live below the poverty line. A New York Times travel article describes Friars Point as nothing more than a rundown shanty town “that peaked in the early 1900’s and has clung to life like morning dew on sweet potato vines.” Despite harsh conditions, people are friendly to each other and outsiders passing through. There is, however, a broken spirit that overwhelms the community. With few residents leaving and obtaining success, children’s aspirations for a thriving future seem impossible to achieve. “Friar’s Point Elementary is home to K-6th graders. Almost every student qualifies for free breakfast and lunch. The school is conveniently located across the street from the public housing or ‘projects,’ which in some cases are nicer than the houses in the neighborhood. I teach fourth, fifth and sixth grade math. The students are extremely far behind the education they should be. Currently, I’m working with my sixth graders on their times tables and subtracting four digit numbers, something I mastered in the fourth grade,” says Bo.
In the classroom, Bo does his best to stay positive. As the only Teach for America Corps member at Friar’s Point Elementary, his teaching persona differs from that of other faculty members. “I am playful, sarcastic, energetic, and encouraging. My relationship with the kids, despite being only nine weeks old, is anything but traditional. It is challenging at times because I have to be confident the students aren’t taking advantage of my friendly approach to teaching. When they get too comfortable, I have to pull back the reins a bit.” Fortunately, Bo feels welcomed by the faculty and students at Friars Point Elementary, despite coming from an obviously different background.
Bo is a member of Teach for America but thinks of himself as a regular teacher rather than a corps member. “My commitment is to my school and my district, not Teach for America,” he says. “I can only speak for myself when I say I feel little connection to TFA. It is a very personal decision and I don’t think it is a bad thing. I’m dedicated to my kids and my community but not to the data that TFA is after to prove progress.” Despite the largely positive coverage of TFA in the media, many corps members side with Armstrong regarding their experience with the organization. Teachers who start the year off eager to make a difference do not always get the experience they are looking for. Will Healy, a graduate from Fordham University, explains in the article “Teach for America Yields Mixed Results for Eager Grads” that a new hire might end up in the Texas Rio Grande Valley (when their first choice was New York) teaching a group of Spanish speaking students English when they themselves are not bilingual. Regardless of a person’s orientation to TFA, teaching is hard enough. Additional stressful circumstances placed on corps members make it even more difficult to handle. Frustrations with the program may differ from corps member to corps member, but present a challenge for many of the new teachers.
Teach for America is largely driven by its commitment to statistically close the education gap that exists between economically advantaged and disadvantaged children. Everything revolves around the data it collects. “The application, being extremely data driven itself, should have been an indicator that this was how the organization would be conducted. There seemed to be a mathematical formula for everything and ultimately that is what decides who will be hired. I was hopeful that it would be more personal. It worries and frustrates me that the mission is based off of getting numbers and not necessarily on getting the right person for the right job,” says Bo. In order to prove that the organization is effective, Teach for America must be able to show that it is quickly closing the educational achievement gap. At the end of every survey administered to Corps members by Teach for America is a statement that reiterates the importance of closing the student achievement gap defined by scores on standardized tests as a first priority. Bo feels differently, “My number one priority is not closing the achievement gap; I would rather instill some sort of intellectual curiosity, enthusiasm and promise in the student. Hopefully in time, that will contribute to closing the achievement gap.” Bo does not blame the organization for its goals and believes it understandable that TFA has a specific mission it wants to concretely prove has been accomplished through data. “I don’t fault the organization for this and I do believe that everyone who is drawn to the organization is more committed to the students than the statistics”.
Despite reservations about the organization, Bo has high goals for himself and his students. In order to meet these goals the pressure is put on solely by him. “I don’t have a boss hovering over me all the time telling me I have a project due in thirty minutes. In my circumstance, I receive no guidance from Teach for America on what to do daily in the classroom. The freedom adds to the personal responsibility and pressure.”
Like any first job, Armstrong has concerns regarding his position with Teach for America. Despite distancing himself from TFA, he strives to inspire and educate his students. For now, he will continue to wake up every morning, put on his coat and tie, and walk in to the classroom with an enthusiastic approach to teaching and learning.
