Old folks often look back on their younger years with nostalgia. They remember their 20s as a time of carefree youth and exuberance. What they often forget – and what young adults often fail to realize – is these are the years we make the most important decisions of our lives: who to marry, what career to pursue and where to live. I don’t have this stuff figured out, but I am confident with one decision I’ve made – I’m going to enter one of America’s most under-funded, challenging classrooms and try to make an impact on the lives of hundreds of students.Today I submitted my application to Teach for America, a two-year teaching corps that puts promising college graduates into urban and rural public schools in an effort to eliminate inequality in public education. Its goal is lofty, but it needs undertaking. Nine-year-olds in low-income areas, on average, are three grade levels behind those in high-income neighborhoods, and are seven times less likely to attend college, according to teachforamerica.org.2004 marks 50 years of Brown v. The Board of Education, and five decades later schools are still segregated. They aren’t legally segregated, but the result is still the same: separate and unequal. There is a terrible irony in naming an under-funded, dilapidated school – 95 percent black with dropout rates staggeringly higher than the national average – Martin Luther King, Jr. High School. Disparities between the quality of education in poor versus affluent neighborhoods are not entirely racial, but to say minorities are disproportionately impacted is an understatement.My efforts in the classroom will make a difference, and so will my colleagues’ in the corps. Corps members directly impact a quarter-million students annually, and the personal contact I’ll have with my future students can change a student’s future. I had a disability in high school, and until my senior year I had to listen to books on tape. I had liked English, but because of the difficulties I had in the subject I had lost enthusiasm. My senior English teacher, Mr. Brown, fostered a joy in the subject again – and now both my majors focus on literature. My adversity wasn’t poverty, but the situations corps members’ students face can strip all joy from the learning process.I made the decision to enter the corps primarily because I want to instill an appreciation and value for education in my students. But of course, I’m not doing this entirely for the pupils. I’ve always wanted to do something adventurous that immerses me in a situation different than my own. I grew up in a predominately white suburb, so the corps will definitely be sending me to a place far away from home. Other options, such as the Peace Corps (which I thought long and hard about), didn’t pan out for me and ultimately Teach for America presented my most promising option.The Peace Corps is an excellent program, and I hope to undertake a humanitarian mission to Africa before I’m gray, but I’m not prepared to commit two years out of the country where my friends, family and girlfriend live. Also, Teach for America corps members get paid (with full benefits) by the school districts they teach in and receive an education stipend of a little less than $10,000. As a person interested in teaching, I’d get in the classroom the same year I graduate and would finish the corps with a teaching credential and masters in education, giving me the option to stay in the field if I choose.I’m not excited about graduating from SDSU simply because there won’t be any more midterms – it’s because I’ve got a very challenging and worthwhile two years ahead of me if I’m accepted into the program. I may not have all the big decisions of my 20s made, but because I’m doing somtehing meaningful next year, I like where I’m headed.
-Teach for America is having an information session at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Casa Real.
-Joe Zarro is an English and philosophy senior and editor in chief for The Daily Aztec.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed – include your full name, major and year in school.
