Andrew Hartman writes: Teach for America: The Hidden Curriculum of Liberal Do-Gooders in the Winter 2012 edition of Jacobin Magazine.
In the latest edition of a liberal upstart magazine, Hartman discusses the role that Teach For America's insurgent agenda has had in America's schools.
As you read the clips I've provided, I encourage you to visit the entire article and take a closer look at the real impact of TFA on America's schools.
Hartman teaches history "at a second-tier state university (Illinois State) in the Midwest that houses a large college of education, not exactly TFA’s prime recruiting territory."
Maybe it is because of my own college education at another second-tier state university in the Midwest that I am intrigued by his discussion of TFA?
Just like most work on the education reform movement, Hartman introduces us to the austerity effects of the last two years, but his is more of a valiant take-down of TFA. After all, TFA often gets a free-ride in the mainstream media.
The msm largely glorifies the organization as a miracle, when in fact, very little evidence exists to support their claims. Additionally, The conservative media also jump on the bandwagon and praise them as an alternative to the "evil teachers unions" and their "status quo" approach to education.
The liberals of the education reform movement, often more surreptitiously than the overstated former Washington D.C. Chancellor of Schools during Democratic Mayor Adrian Fenty’s term in office Michelle Rhee, have for decades advanced negative assumptions about public school teachers that now power the attacks by (Chris) Christie (New Jersey), (Scott) Walker (Wisconsin), (John) Kasich (Ohio) and their ilk. This is particularly true of Teach for America (TFA), the prototypical liberal education reform organization, where Rhee first made her mark. The history of TFA reveals the ironies of contemporary education reform.
Much has been written about the attacks by GOP governors on the education profession. Which is why I feel that Hartman hits a homerun when he turns his focus from traditional attacks towards the attack of the liberal education establishment on teachers.
Please continue reading below.