Teach for America, Steve Jobs, and the Culture of Poverty
by Mark Naison | special to NewBlackMan
One of the reasons that Teach for America is so attractive to corporate funders like Steven Jobs of Apple—whatever portion of the political spectrum them may come from—is that TFA offers an enhanced version of the Culture of Poverty thesis that was in vogue in the early and middle Sixties.
In the world according to TFA, poor school performance is a product of communities who lack a strong foundation of middle class values, burned out teachers who have given up trying to instill those values, and teachers unions which protect burned out teachers What is needed, to transform failing schools and communities, is a constant infusion of highly motivated teachers who will be ambassadors for middle class values and will leave before they are burned out or begin to adapt to the culture of the communities in which they are located.
The "two years and out" commitment is actually consistent with TFA's worldview and "theory of change.” Because TFA teachers are moving in and out of low performing schools at a rapid rate, children of the poor will constantly be exposed to emissaries of mainstream American values who refuse to accept the "culture of failure" that exists in poor communities. The result- great improvement in school performance at little cost
The message to funders; Give money to Teach for America and you will gradually change the culture of poor neighborhoods through its most impressionable and malleable representatives, its youth, and over time, poverty will diminish, or be drastically reduced .
What makes this kind of thinking, from the corporate point of view, so attractive is that it rejects any structural explanations of poverty that might require a redistribution of wealth or higher tax rates on corporations. It suggests the problems of poverty and inequality can be solved through private philanthropy and individual sacrifice by bright middle class college graduates .devoting a few years to uplifting poor children early in their careers
No evidence that such an approach will work is required. It makes donors feel so good that evidence doesn't matter.
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Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depression and White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.
