Pass the Chalk: The TFA Blog

I have felt an immense guilt in our organization.

I have seen poverty, but it was never my constant condition. Growing up on the west side of Fresno, there was always an exit. My grandparents owned a progressive and thriving African-American Newspaper company; this kept our family afloat. My grandpa fought daily (sometimes literally) to keep our city accountable to the economic freedoms our nation proclaimed. I admired his bold fight for justice that put food on the table, but struggled to figure out what role I would play.

In 2009 when I graduated from the University of California—Merced, I had already made the decision to join Teach For America. I remember stepping away from the podium after singing the National Anthem, fingers shaking, as Michelle Obama took the stage to deliver the keynote. I don’t remember everything she said, but I will never forget the passionate rumble in her voice as she spoke about “making change” “through national efforts like Teach For America.” Her words affirmed that I was doing the right thing. That day, my values, dreams and passions all felt aligned.

Fast-forward 2 years. I became uncomfortable. The unsettled feeling of not being able to relate was back. This became very clear to me during my time teaching in Mississippi.

I taught in a school district that was 98% black. I was eager to be a role model for change and open doors of opportunity for all of my Visual Arts students. After tirelessly raising $18,000 in months, 6 of my students and I embarked on a trip to Paris, France. When I asked whether or not they were enjoying their time in Paris, one of my girls responded, “You don’t care and you’ve ignored us since we got here.”

Photo by MarkGGN via WikiCommons

Today I started my workday giving a coaching session with a manager, then moved into a check-in with one of my reports.  I shadowed a meeting and gave feedback, before training 40 managers on our performance management system. After answering email and a few quick questions, I spent the afternoon editing a training that my team is launching and did some preparation for a cross-functional workgroup I lead.

I did this from my home office.

Everyone is buzzing about Yahoo’s decision to eliminate remote work.  While working from home isn’t always the answer, I do believe that the strength of my team is in part because of 1) our grounding in Teach For America’s mission and 2) our reach into communities across the country.

However, I do believe there are a few things that are essential in order to make remote work, well, work:

Photo provided by Kathleen Fujawa

One of the most haunting images coming out of the Civil Rights Movement shows school-age children being catapulted into brick walls by the Birmingham Fire Department with hoses powerful enough to rip the skin off of those sprayed. At nine-years-old my mother, along with her sisters, became one of those photographed children.

May 1963, Children's Marchers pushed back by fire hoses. (File/The Birmingham News)

I only know Teach For America’s new co-CEOs from a distance. In Matt Kramer, I see a man who wants to empower others to be agents of the change they want to see. In Elisa Villanueva Beard, I see a woman who has stepped into history as Teach For America’s first Latina CEO. The announcement of their new roles came during the first few days of Black History Month; how apropos, then, for Elisa to be the mother of sons named Langston, Malcolm, and Marshall. These august names of African-American history have three leadership lessons to offer our new CEOs.

Photo by Winold Reiss via Wikimedia Commons