As a first year teacher with Teach For America, I am only starting to realize how unfair life can be for children who live in under-resourced and poor performing school districts. The problems my seventh graders in San Jose, Calif. face are extraordinary, and I am amazed at the spirit and energy they still bring to the classroom each and every day. Whether it be resisting peer pressure to join a gang or finding a safe place to do their homework each night, my students prove to me on a regular basis that they want to succeed and achieve their goals and aspirations.
It is truly an amazing feeling to know I have helped my students strive toward academic success. One seventh grade student, who had not been diagnosed with dyslexia until I had him tested for it this year, improved almost one and half grade levels in reading in the span of six short months. Recently, this student told me he now wants to become a phenomenal teacher so he can help students find their strengths and weakness when they are young and not when they are 13 years old.
Looking back now, I was extremely lucky to have the opportunities I had, and I could think of no better way than giving something back. As graduation looms, I ask that you consider giving back and joining Teach For America, the national corps of recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in the effort to expand opportunity for all children. Not only will you gain valuable skills that will transfer to any professional field you enter, but you will also receive the satisfaction that you were a part of a movement genuine in its dedication to leaving no child behind.
Chris Weber CAS ’01
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
