Should Teach for America Have Recruiting Happy Hours?

So what’s wrong with Teach for America advertising their get-together—uh—recruiting  Happy Hour party?  Why did parent, Jennifer Proseus, PTA mom extraordinaire, even bother calling it into question on Facebook?

I like to socialize and as a teacher I found it helpful to meet after school to talk about issues or just kick back. Almost always, we teachers basked in the loveliness of a real lunch at a restaurant, any restaurant, away from the teacher’s lounge or the school cafeteria on teacher planning days. As far as alcohol…I recall some wine and cheese parties after school, maybe even a few were hosted by teacher associations. And I personally remember a few Happy Hour get-togethers with several close teacher friends.

Here’s why the TFA soirees bother me.

In any of the socials I attended, I don’t recall any recruiting going on at the time of the social. Making connections…discussing issues…of course. But recruiting at a Happy Hour seems wrong.  

The TFA parties/recruitment, apparently held select times throughout the year, appear to be mostly for the young. The TFA in Memphis are with the Achievement School District which wildly promotes itself, even though it has done little if anything to show proven results, as better than the schools it replaced. They took over after some real public schools were shuttered and the credentialed, experienced teachers excessed, or in layman’s terms fired. There was nothing celebratory for many in those actions.

There are questions as to the funding of these parties. Maybe it seems trite, but when serious budget cuts plague the school district, citizens notice how pennies are spent. Frivolity appears inappropriate.   

The TFA set want respect, or so they imply, from adults in the room (or the adults outside the bar in this case). Partying on down after work makes them appear like—well an exclusionary fraternity. Recruiting while they are drinking and doing photo shoots (yes I said photo shoots) also seems swarmy.

Along with the above, TFA recruiters and college grads have not left their college-age peers too far behind. It is on college campuses where we see much-too-much drinking. In some places it’s a real problem. TFA are also not much older than the high school students they work with. Like it or not, TFA is stepping into the adult role of a teacher. Advertising a Happy Hour for so-called teacher recruitment seems like poor judgment. It makes the drinking scene look acceptable to younger students.

I don’t like the organization Teach for America for the many reasons already written about in the literature and the news. But the young people wanting to take on the role of a teacher can be sincere. One of the criticisms is that they are not well-prepared for the job they are undertaking…that they are young and naïve. The Happy Hour recruitment just reaffirms those criticisms.