Excellent Reasons to Join TFA

Excellent Reason # 1: You have wanted to be a teacher for a long time.
Excellent Reason # 2: You have taught extensively in the past and loved it.

Excellent Reason # 3 (only in conjunction with ER # 1 and/or 2): You want to work with students at under-resourced schools and to have access to TFA’s training program and support system.

There may be other excellent reasons to join (feel free to post them), but these are the best I can think of. The best and most satisfied first-year teachers/TFA corps members I saw had either prior teaching experience or a genuine and longstanding interest in becoming teachers.

When you decide whether to apply to or join Teach for America, your focus (in my opinion, of course) should be on that first word: teach. Before you think about anything else, forget about helping people, forget about meeting other corps members, forget about politics and community service and grad school and whatever else may be factoring into your decision, and ask yourself this one question: Do I want to be a teacher?

And then ask yourself this one: Am I suited to being a teacher?