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Exactly one year and a few days after I graduated from Princeton University, five hundred teacher corps members gathered in the University of Southern California's auditorium for the opening ceremony of the first Teach For America summer training institute. For several years, whenever I was asked how I had accomplished this feat, I would reply that there was really nothing magical about it; I simply developed a plan and moved forward step by step. Teach For America came together because my idea was solid and my plan made sense. Now, however, I realize that this answer is insufficient. I once heard that when an idea is meant to happen, the laws of the universe are suspended to make way for it. Looking back over that first year at Teach For America, it's clear that some greater force was at work. The time had come for young people to reject the savage inequalities of the American education system. We had to take a stand.
I knew that we had to start big. Only a big launch would convey the urgency and national importance of this effort. Only a big launch would inspire the nation's most talented graduating seniors—those with the most other career options—to forego lucrative banking and consulting jobs in order to join my fledgling reform movement. So I developed an ambitious plan: In our first year, we needed to inspire thousands of graduating college seniors to apply to join the corps. We would then select, train, and place 500 members as teachers in five or six urban and rural areas across the country. According to the budget calculations I did for my senior thesis, this would cost approximately $2.5 million. My plan was not supported by any textbook on how to start an organization, and I didn't find much encouragement outside of textbooks either. In fact, it seemed that everyone I met advised me to think more modestly; I should recruit 50 people for one site, learn from that experience, and then expand from there. Where I did find support was in my research about the Peace Corps. President Kennedy had appointed Sargent Shriver to develop a proposal for the Peace Corps, and most of Shriver's advisers suggested a slow and cautious beginning. But Shriver knew that a corps that operated in a quiet, leisurely manner would never become a symbol of the New Frontier. And so he recommended that Kennedy create the Peace Corps by executive order, that it be launched within weeks, and that several hundred volunteers be placed within the year. Shriver's plan led thousands of idealistic college students to apply, and it ensured the Peace Corps's place as an indelible part of the American landscape. His theory worked. I didn't have a president behind me, but I needed to accomplish the same thing. Teach For America had to start big. |
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PAPERBACKISBN 978-1-58648-179-7 Pub date: 03/13/03 Price: $13.00/19.95 Canada 5-1/2X8-1/4 208 pages Carton Quantity: 48 Autobiography, Education Selling Territory: WORLD Pub history: PublicAffairs hc
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