ABSTRACT
“And he looked at me with a tear in his eye and said, ‘Thank you, sir.’” The tall, blue-eyed young man stood on stage at the microphone, looking earnestly at his audience with a notebook in hand. He was recounting touching and breakthrough moments he experienced with the eighth graders he taught that summer, in 2009. This corps member, along with those of us in the audience, had just completed the Teach For America Institute, a five-week experience during which hundreds of new corps members are “transformed” into teachers through training sessions and a month-long summer school teaching practicum. There was a pervasive sense of accomplishment and pride in the auditorium. But I felt disconnected from the celebratory atmosphere. I felt disappointed and disillusioned.
