Amidst seemingly international pressure to have Plans for After College, I am applying to Teach for America.  “At the very least, it’s a paycheck and full hours,” one friend points out.  I encounter two camps regarding TFA.  The first are academic types that say “TFA is a great opportunity,” pointing to the acquired professional and graduate study qualifications the program allows, not to mention the “real world” experience.  I counter that if I currently am not gaining real world experience, to please unplug the back of my neck from the motherboard and pull the hose out of my throat. The other camp comes more from my colleagues: “I heard TFA is really fucking hard.  I knew someone whose friend dropped out.

Sitting in the office of a professor whose opinion I highly value, I popped the question: “So, what do you think of Teach for America?”  “I love it,” he responded, referencing a former student of his who completed the program while gaining an expensive accreditation from a local university, made affordable by TFA. “It’s really fucking hard though,” he added.  “No easy stuff.”

Upon closer examination, it is difficult to pinpoint what is “so fucking hard” about TFA, when, in fact, what you do is quite simple: you teach, and nobody who teaches does so because it is easy.  As a four-year Woodward School for Technology and Research veteran, having co-run the program in 2007-2008, and currently involved in nuturing personal long-term relationships with specific students and their families, I can vouch that the rewards for such time-alotment are often retrospective, best reflected upon after a good meal and a nap.  Hearsay, however, can be gold when it comes to “life transition programs” such as TFA, and one thing that I hear is that corps members quit, or become discouraged because they feel impotent to fight the greater forces at work in their respective classrooms.

flickr.com image courtesy of hellosputnik

The K student liaison to TFA came into my Shakespeare class Fall Quarter to plug the upcoming application deadline.  She recounted a story of two public high schools in the same Chicago school district.  One was well funded and in a wealthy area, and a majority of the students performed well on national tests, and the expected number went on to higher education.  The other high school was more urban, poorly funded, and [I believe] serviced a predominantly ‘minority’ community. An astoundingly low percentage of the students there åperformed well on national tests, and very few went on to higher education, let alone graduated or passed an equivalency exam.  And this was why we were supposed to join Teach for America.  I sat in the back of the room and screamed “DOESN’T ANYBODY REALIZE THAT THERE ARE LARGER AND SYSTEMIC ISSUES AT PLAY HERE?  THEY’RE IN THE SAME FUCKING SCHOOL DISTRICT.  THERE SHOULDN’T BE A SINGLE FUCKING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO SCHOOLS AND THEIR STAFF!”

I brought up my “plugging the cracks in the dam” theory with my trusted professor.  He nodded and said “Oh, yes.  I see now.  Yes.” and then he nodded again.

In May 2009, U.S. Secretary of Education Secretary Arne Duncan called Detroit “ground zero” for education, though he added that he felt “‘a sense of real hope … [that] people here understand’ the importance of education and the need for reform.” That following December, Detroit Public Schools learned that their students set the nation record for inferiority on the National Assessment for Educational Progress.  69% of the fourth graders and 77% of the eighth graders participating in the hour long exam scored “below basic” on math.  The Freep mused,

“The results are perhaps the most damning indictment to date of a district already pummeled by reports of poor graduation rates, labor disputes, financial collapse, and even gunfire in the hallways.”

The buck stopped at the school district administration, and then Lansing-appointed “emergency financial manager” Robert Bibb took the Washington and deposited it into the district’s waning coffers.  “Just one of three of DPS fourth-graders, the test suggests, can correctly subtract 75 from 301, given a choice of three answers,” the Freep observed.

In the print edition of the Free Press I picked up that evening, one column opined that this was the district’s fault, while one blamed the teachers.  Another vaguely asserted a connection between parental involvement and educational success, and all parties agreed that this, above all else, was not the student’s fault.  There was even a nice graphic to illustrate how two-thirds of Detroit’s publicly-educated fourth- and eighth-graders were stumped by 301-75 = ___.  (My iPhone calculator says ‘226′).

And I’m thinking: this isn’t one person’s fault.  This isn’t just bureaucratic vacuousness, or teacher inanity or family fatuousness or a student’s lack of respect for him or herself: this is everyone’s fault.  Every person who has ever meaningfully encountered these kids is to blame for this pathetic academic showing–including the students themselves (though we are all so much a product of our environments).

In an age where Washington plans to spend $663.7 billion on the DOD (not including $42.7 billion allotted to the Department of Homeland Security) compared to $46.7 billion on education–and $164 billion to cover the interest on our national debt–Teach for America employs around 7,300 college grads to help fill and ameliorate the nation’s classrooms, none of which are located at the academic “ground zero” of Detroit.

The final application deadline for 2010 is February 19.

The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of The Kosmopolitan Online.  They reflect the personal opinions of the author.

Well, everyone worried about Ted Kennedy’s death and what it would mean to any meaningful change to the health care system in the United States.  Apart from all the unwarranted hysteria about the Kennedy curse (he was old and he died…), I thought the press handled it pretty well, including The Kosmopolitan Online, which wrote a couple of nice editorials on Ted’s contributions to the Senate and how he was a one-man filibuster and so on and so forth.  I have to admit I never liked the guy, but staunchness and constancy aren’t very well spoken for in our representation, apart from on the extremely local level.  The paradigmatic Kennedy contributed a lot to health care reform while he was alive; he contributed even more by dying, creating an inamorata around which the Democrats could rally.  Democratic zeal for health care after his death is what got the legislation this far.

But now it’s fucked.

In an impossible victory, Scott Brown (R) defeated Martha Coakley (D) approximately 53 to 47 percent to take the late senator’s seat in Massachusetts.  The usually overwhelmingly democratic Massachusetts shocked the polity by electing to the senate the 41st member of the GOP, which keeps alive the Republican filibuster for the Senate health care bill.  President Obama’s first year in office is shot (unless he’s out of the country), and Democrats can wave goodbye any hopes of an expeditious piece of legislation.

Martha, Martha, Martha

I would understand if Martha Coakley had been in some kind of drug scandal and lost the election; I would understand if she was an ineffective campaigner.  No, I think Martha Coakley is another name for President Barack Obama and His Administration…Most democrats seem to have lost a little faith in their “change is coming” mantra, with frustration permeating throughout the House and Senate at the longevity of this convoluted health care bill.  Granted, the death of the champion probably didn’t help, but someone famous once said that things will one day be judged by the content of their character instead of outward appearances.

Scott Brown’s campaign platform makes the election even more painful for democrats to swallow: he actively opposes the health care legislation in the House and Senate.

It doesn’t help that Obama had a bad year.  What makes things worse is that he knows and admits that the year was bad, calling the Christmas Day attack of the Northwest airliner “a systematic failure” on the part of the administration.  The economy’s positive response to the senatorial election can almost entirely be attributed to increased faith in drug companies which would otherwise have been negatively impacted by the President’s health care package.  That’s sickening.

I think it’s funny that Scott Brown once posed nude for Cosmopolitan – it means we’re breaking down this crusty, white male paradigm of “what a politician should be” (iniquitous, venal, etc.).  I just wish Scott Brown was a (D).  Sigh…

“It’s the price of oil, the war for the spoils, where’s your bucket for the big bailout? Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, we got a lot to drink about…”

Forgive my unlicensed quoting of a Jimmy Buffett song (for an intelligentsia-marketed publication no less), but it seems to me that today is a great day to develop some alcoholism. Now, I don’t mean to mock anyone with a serious problem (get some help?), but a recovering alcoholic got us into this mess. Shouldn’t our law-professor generalissimo be able to realize that maybe voicing withdrawal plans that are as intelligible as a monophonic recording of Bob Dylan singing the Tax Code in hurricane-force winds might not be the best strategy to adopt? That may be a bit harsh, but I should like to think that Il Duce is smart enough to experience a little déjà vu when he hears his withdrawal plan float out past that mole-colored mole on his lip. And I’m not likening Obama-fo-yo-Mama to Mussolini, but all of this plebeian pandering is reminiscent of the 30s in Europe, ain’t it?

It occurs to me (your local card-carrying GOP-er) that the withdrawal plan el Presidente has been handed to read to the public is strikingly similar to dear-old-W’s “wait-and-see” approach that had Hillary (this is actually her plan donchaknow) and Her Hell-kittens in a hullaballoo not too long ago.  Just don’t let anyone named scaevola (Latin, look it up) know that, holy shit, there are similarities between our two indelible parties.

“What if we’re wrong”, I question myself, “what if we just happen to be overreacting to the health-care debate?” That’s possible, but what’s also possible is that I’m still disgusted with the rabidity that Obama-disciples display; don’t let’s criticize the Phrenologist-in-chief, “he’s won a peace prize” (don’t worry, no “piece” puns here); “he’s ‘fixed’ the economy” (my collie is wincing).  Bullshit, he’s just as little as Clinton ever did, except Obama has a Senate in his favor, in HIS FAVOR!

By the by, the economy still isn’t fixed, but it’ll be worsened by spending ourselves deeper into Chinese debt. We can’t fix healthcare with a public option and it’s very foolish for Liberals to compare it to the VA. There won’t be an up-swell in new industry by placing increasingly devious barriers to job-growth. There won’t be any major success in Iraq and Afghanistan until either of those nations decides it wants success and the citizenry actively seeks to extirpate the fascist-fundamentalist coalition which has hijacked the same faith which sponsored Battuta’s journeys to China. I used to be an optimist, you know.

The fact is that the Change-Meister-in-chief has failed to bring his “change.” Don’t get me wrong, everyone in Washington politics needs to be taken out for an afternoon of electroshock, but it starts at the top.  I know it’s a tired line, but the hype generated by our President was obviously better suited for campaigning than leading.  I mean, anyone could get elected with that kind of plebiscitary doling.

Headlines are punchlines folks and there’s not much we can do about it, except pour shots and bitch until someone comes along worth supporting. We’ve got a lot to drink about…

Milk Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black

Thanks to the state legislature, Michigan has become the premier market for motion picture filming outside of Hollywood. The Michigan Film Incentive Program has brought vitalized growth to our movie industry. Chances are at some point over the past year (or in the near future), a Michigan made picture will be making its way to a theater near you. The most recent example was the directorial debut of E.T. darling Drew Barrymore, Whip It, starring Ellen Page.  Barrymore had these wonderful things to say about Michigan, “Michigan was such a great place to film. I hope to come back and film again, there are so many great places to shoot. I was so lucky to have made my film here. I’m the grateful one, I promise you.” Clint Eastwood raved about the state after the completion of 2008’s Gran Torino, “Michigan will be the new film capital of the world.” Michigan, for once in recent future, seemed to making strides in the right direction.

Two weeks ago I was notified by a friend at Hope College that Dustin Lance Black (Writer of Milk [2008]) was in Holland shooting his follow up. Eager, I researched the project only to find that it would be bringing big names like Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly to Western Michigan. The news made me ecstatic: one of the biggest up-and-coming Hollywood screenwriters had enough faith (or at least incentives) in Michigan to choose it for his latest project.

Recently, students at Hope College reached out to Black and asked that he come and present at an open forum on homosexual rights. While this movement was student orientated, school administration has decided to ban Black from speaking. Richard Frost, Hope College Dean of Students, stated that, “from past experience, strongly-opinionated speakers usually don’t further academic discussions about gay, lesbian or transgender issues.” Instead, Frost opted to invite Black to give an educational lecture to the screenwriting department.

Dustin Lance Black has a lot to say on hope for LGBT-Q equality. While accepting his Academy Award for Screenwriting, Black said, “When I was thirteen years old my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California and I heard the story of Harvey Milk and it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope to one day live my life as openly as I am and maybe I could even one day fall in love and get married.”

As long as institutions continue to suppress issues–teaching hate–and ignore homosexuality, hope will never exist. President Obama challenged the American population on election night, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.” I can only hope that we are at the dawn of a revolution where people understand that the founding fathers, a group of men driven by Christian beliefs, had in mind a nation where “all men are created equal.”