Because Williams does not have an Education major, a graduating Eph who wishes to teach has three main options.

1) Enroll in a graduate school of Education

2) Teach at a private or parochial school (they are not required to hire licensed teachers)

3) Enroll in an alternative-route certification program, such as Teach for America, Mississippi Teacher Corps, New York City Teaching Fellows, Chicago Teaching Fellows, and many, many others.

I am not exactly sure of the typical breakdown between these three options for Williams grads who go in to teaching. My (very rough) guess is that around 10 members of the class of ‘07 ended up in #2, and another 10-20 in #3. I only know of a few people who were considering #1. (Note: Plenty of students also go abroad to teach - the phantom 4th option on my list). Perhaps someone more familiar with these numbers (the OCC must know!) could chime in and correct me…

I hope to get few writers from each of these categories, but I’m starting these entries with participants from alternative-route (meaning: not through traditional graduate school) programs. Obviously, as a current member of one these programs, its the viewpoint most familiar to me. But I am also starting here because it is the category that has been receiving the most attention recently - news articles, columns, books, and lots of good buzz about how a big chunk of our generation has chosen to devote two years of our lives to improving our nation’s educational system.

Most aspiring teachers who choose that third category will find themselves in low-income school districts that have a high rate of teacher turnover — and a whole slew of problems that contribute to it.

More below the jump…

My school district, located in rural Mississippi, serves a county whose population is roughly 65% black and 35% white. I teach at the only public high school in our district - where the student body is 99% black. In certain Mississippi counties, the white students do not attend public schools. They attend private academies whose inception dates roughly coincide with the date of Brown vs. Board of Education – the historic court case which forced Southern states to integrate their schools. Ironically, there are currently 7 white students at our high school of 1700; Brown managed to do absolutely nothing for integration in this part of the South.

About 70% percent of my students receive free or reduced-priced lunches (which means their families make less than $39,000 for four people). The median household income is around $25,000 in our county. A quick survey of my students shows that the majority live in single-parent homes, and many are being raised by grandmothers in the absence of either parent.

A glance through my rosters reveals that roughly 30% of my female students this year were either pregnant or had a small child at home. The school itself is plagued by fights and a lack of certified teachers (more than a few were teaching on “emergency licenses” this year, not having completed a program of certification). A good portion of my 11th graders read at a 7th or 8th grade level, and a few fell well below that.

Despite these grim statistics, my students constantly showed me that they weren’t simply victims of their circumstances. I was amazed this year by their creativity, their energy, their humor, and their insights.

I was reminded of this on the days that they crack jokes about the material we are covering (”Watch out or I’m a’ go all Okonkwo on you!”), the days they get excited about class (”You be givin’ us these books, and at first they don’t seem good… but then they be real good!”), the days they showed up for track practice after a long day of school and hours of after-school tutoring (”Sorry I’m late… Do you want me to run laps?”) and the days they share their hopes with me— of going to college, of getting their trucking license, of graduating with honors, of getting a 15 on the ACT, or of getting that dream job…

It would be so easy to look at communities like this one and see nothing but failure — but these kids often manage to do just the opposite. They are all well aware of the drop-out statistics, the prison statistics, all sorts of low-income-minority statistics .. but that doesn’t mean they have given up.

I’ll end this post with a beautiful little anecdote from Rob Bland ‘07, another teacher in Mississippi, who wrote this on his blog back in February:

I’m in the middle of my I.B. US History class. This is my motivated, well-managed class so they are on task, working on the “do now”, trying to figure out what this political cartoon about Franklin Roosevelt means.

I get a knock on the door.

It’s BR, one of my seniors who I’ve already taught for a semester.
“Mr. Bland?”
“What’s up man?”
He points to a misshapen necktie knot that hangs belows his adam’s apple.
“I need help with this.”
It is presentation day in the senior career development class. All the students are required to dress formally.
I don’t think twice about helping, though this is all somewhat new to me. I learned to tie a decent knot about a year ago; I started wearing a tie regularly this year.

I take his tie and put it into a half windsor knot. Instead of putting the wide end of the tie through the knot, I hand the half finished product in his hands. A little confused he takes the tie and tries to put the wide end through the knot without holding it tight. It falls apart.
A little frustrated, a little embarrassed, BR says” Just know, I’ve never done this before.”
“Don’t worry about it man. Let’s try it again”
I complete the tie again, this time putting the wide end of the tie through the knot.
“Thanks Mr. B.”