Pass the Chalk: The TFA Blog

OK, maybe I’m not glad I failed. These are more like three reasons I’m a better person for having failed calculus. When I shipped off to college, 18, full of promise and enthusiastic to cover everything in my dorm room with leopard-print fabric, I knew one thing emphatically: Having 8 a.m. Calc was not a good thing. My headline may have given it away—I failed that class. It’s the only class I’ve ever failed. But I’m a better person for having taken it, struggled with it, and failed it. When Andrew Hacker contended recently in the New York Times that algebra isn’t necessary, the memory of this class rang loudly in my ears.

Mr. Hacker’s op-ed is well worth the read—and if you fall into the majority of American adults for whom the subject of math “is more feared or revered than understood,” you may find his take extremely compelling. I had plenty of moments where I was nodding alongside him myself. In fact, I’d sign up on the U.S.S. NoMoreAlgebra tomorrow but for these three reasons:

When our family moved to D.C., I had trouble at first finding the childcare situation I wanted. A friend told me about a small charter pre-school that accepted two-year-olds and practiced full inclusion, educating children with special needs within the general classroom. I’d only considered charters in the abstract before, but I jumped at the chance to sign Alan up for the school’s admissions lottery. I was convinced that this school would offer my typically developing two-and-a-half-year-old a more individualized educational experience.

Alan won a spot, and I was delighted to find a deeply committed principal and well-trained staff members. And so I took my son to his first day of school, and at the door to his new classroom, I met…a Teach For America alumna.

Alan and Ms. Laura, his TFA alum teacher. Photo courtsey of Heather Harding.

Shuhei Yamamoto joined Teach For America’s staff in 2007 and moved to Chicago, where he still resides. 

In the wake of the Aurora shooting, our nation rightfully felt compelled to speak, sparking important dialogue surrounding violence, gun control, and mental health. It has become clear to the general public yet again—as it did after Virginia Tech and Columbine—that gun violence is a crisis in the United States. The Aurora tragedy is undoubtedly one of the most-talked-about American news stories of the year.

Between 8 p.m. July 20—the Friday of the Aurora shooting—and 9 a.m. July 23, 31 people were shot on the South and West Sides of Chicago. Three of them were killed. This news received little attention outside of local media outlets.

A memorial to the 406 homicide victims in Philadelphia over the course of one year (Courtesy of Tony Fischer Photography).

The next night, in the same neighborhoods, 13 people were shot. Six were shot within a span of 15 minutes, including one 17-year-old boy who died. He was reportedly hanging out with friends in the park.

This post is part of an ongoing series on Pass the Chalk called Point/Counterpoint, where two bloggers will argue opposite sides of a pressing issue in education. Yesterday, blogger Erin Teater argued for gender-segregated schools in "No Girls Allowed! The Case For Gender-Segregated Schools." Today, Marie Diamond rebuts.

While Erin can speak firsthand about the benefits of gender-segregated education at schools in low-income communities, I’m disturbed by the trend and its effects on students from across the socioeconomic spectrum. Does gender-segregated education really improve students’ learning, and in the long run, is it good for the welfare and social development of kids?

Boys and girls in the classroom together.

While the number of gender-segregated schools and classrooms remains small, they are growing fast. In 2002, only a dozen schools had single-sex classrooms, but today as many as 500 in 40 states do. Are these classrooms good for kids? The evidence suggests no. Last year Science magazine published a comprehensive review of existing research that concluded “there is no well-designed research showing that single-sex education improves students’ academic performance.” What’s more, separating boys and girls “reinforces stereotypes and sexism” because it “makes gender more salient.” Segregation, whether race-based or gender-based, “undermines rather than promotes equality,” the paper says. The New York Times, writing about the same study, points out that there’s even disagreement about the degree of success at Chicago’s Urban Prep, one of the schools that Erin mentions in her post.