Re: FW: [xmca] Teach for America (fwd)

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Peter F et al--

Please take a minute to check the membership of xmca
which is publically available at
http://lchc-resources.org/xmca/subscriber_list.php.

In Peter's case you will note that the email address he is currently using
does not match the one he signed up with. We do not have the facilities to
change home email addresses and if you are not a member of xmca according to
that list, you cannot post, even if you can still receive.

There is a standard procedure for dealing with these problems that is posted
at xmca. In short, it amounts to
writing to bjones@ucsd.edu.

We have bruce in this system as a human shield against spamming and other
abuses.

thanks for the very cogent contributions re TFA which accord with my
knowledge of the program. sadly.
mike

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Tony Whitson <twhitson@udel.edu> wrote:

> Pete,
>
> To get your post posted this time, I'm just forwarding it to the list.
>
> Mike can forward it or whatever to fix things for the future. One way this
> can happen is if there's been some change in how your "From" address appears
> to the list server, so it doesn't recognize you, even though it still
> distributes to an address that is routed for you to receive.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:24:47 -0600
> From: Peter Farruggio <pfarruggio@utpa.edu>
> To: twhitson@UDel.Edu, Phillip.White@ucdenver.edu,
> wau@Exchange.FULLERTON.EDU,
>    leifstrandberg.ab@telia.com
> Subject: FW: [xmca] Teach for America
>
> Friends,
>
> First, maybe one of you can help me figure out why my message (below) has
> not posted to xmca. I'm a member, although not an active poster.
>
> Anyway, I've had lots of direct contact with TFA, and I feel that Jim
> Horn's Schools Matter blog has a good archive of postings and articles that
> cut through the corporate-backed ubiquitous pro-TFA hype
>
> Speaking of hype, Philip, I wouldn't let my perspective be shifted too much
> by puff pieces like the Atlantic Monthly articles. One quick thing, we can
> see how little the reporter understands effective pedagogy by how oblivious
> he/she was to the lesson structure used by Mr Taylor (?) in his elementary
> Wash DC classroom for that Math lesson. A whole class IRE technique?  When
> does that ever work to reach all kids?  Typical teach to the middle: too low
> for the higher competency kids, and frustrating for the kids who need to
> catch up. Very un-Vygotskian, and very typical of how textbooks treat lesson
> structures as "background noise" when they are making other points (in this
> case, the point is how dedicated and charismatic the teacher is, I guess)  I
> caution my preservice bilingual education students about how not to get
> snookered by the way textbooks and training videos often portray bad
> teaching, like whole class lessons, as the acceptable norm. I've seen lots
> of real life cases where teachers perform this way, with the cooperation of
> their students who love them, for the benefit of principals, reporters, and
> various other classroom visitors. In fact, I've often been the visitor in
> situations where I was evaluating or doing some sort or other of preliminary
> research. I know too much about pedagogy and classroom management to get
> snookered, but I bet that the Atlantic reporter doesn't.
>
> Anyway, I think Wayne gave an accurate overview of TFA. And yes, TFA has
> brought some great people into low income schools, people who EVENTUALLY
> developed into effective teachers, through their own efforts and with the
> help of more experienced colleagues (like me); but not with the help of TFA.
> Overall, such people are such a tiny minority that they do not overcome the
> harm done by TFA in the policy arena (such as bashing teachers like me,
> among many other things).
>
> So, how do I get my message posted?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Pete Farruggio
> Ass't Prof Bilingual Education
> Univ of TX Pan American
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Farruggio
> Sent: Sat 2/20/2010 4:00 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: RE: [xmca] Teach for America
>
> The Schools Matter site is an excellent source of info (see links below).
> My own direct experience with TFA in several low income school districts
> since that organization's inception confirms the harshest criticisms. A
> miniscule minority of its new teachers have any knowledge of how to teach,
> and during their two-year stint as missionaries they exude elitist contempt
> toward dedicated career teachers. They obediently "deliver" the behaviorist,
> scripted curricula demanded by the high stakes testing regime, and snitch on
> and deprecate the few remaining teachers who resist these mandates. TFA is
>  lavishly funded by the corporate interests who promote the high stakes
> juggernaut, and in recent years several of their graduates (after teaching
> for a brief term of 2-5 years) have gone on to further indoctrination in the
> Eli Broad administrators training program and then to top level policy
> positions in the high stakes apparatus of US education.
>
> Pete Farruggio
>
>
>
>
> http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2009/09/research-findings-on-teach-for-america.html
>
> http://www.schoolsmatter.info/#uds-search-results
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>
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