It’s a real bummer to work towards something so hard, to stack the chips in one’s favor and to practice and prepare and then get rejected (for the 2nd time).
I was keen on joining Teach For America because I believe I can make a difference in education given the opportunity. It’s a hard reality to face that I just might not be good enough. I feel somewhat a failure, cause 1000s of students and graduates did get it. More so, I feel like I’m missing out on a huge opportunity to pay one forward to students around the country that are missing out on a higher quality education.
So, I’m a little bummed. It’s like not getting that job that you were in the final round of interviews for. Then finding out that all of the other candidates were ivy leaguers (which, apparently is the case for T4A).
I’m also resolved though, that we are on the right track (and yes, I include myself in the “we”). It’s great that such educated graduates and students are filling the gaps that otherwise were filled with full-time substitutes and under qualified staff members. T4A is an important stop-gap for our educational crisis, which is best, I think summed up by Friedman in a new Op-Ed in the Times:
In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. dominated the world in K-12 education. We also dominated economically. In the 1970s and 1980s, we still had a lead, albeit smaller, in educating our population through secondary school, and America continued to lead the world economically, albeit with other big economies, like China, closing in. Today, we have fallen behind in both per capita high school graduates and their quality. Consequences to follow.
According to Wendy Kopp, same article by Tom Friedman:
Our total applications are up 40 percent. Eleven percent of all Ivy League seniors applied, 16 percent of Yale’s senior class, 15 percent of Princeton’s, 25 percent of Spellman’s and 35 percent of the African-American seniors at Harvard. In 130 colleges, between 5 and 15 percent of the senior class applied.
At least I can say I made it to the final round. Now if I can only figure out how to get Wendy Kopp to call me…
I may have missed this opportunity, but there will be more. Now I have plenty of time on my hands to figure out what’s next. I still have a job, I still have a wonderful life ahead of me. Someday I’ll help tackle the issues in education a little bit more directly than just spouting nonsense on a blog, followed by no one, subscribed to by yours truly. It is what it is.