Hailed as the “civil rights issue of our generation,” Teach for America’s purpose is essentially “to close the achievement gap.” Young students in low-performing schools never have the opportunity to succeed in life if they’re stuck in a bad school. So, through employing and recruiting the best teachers, Teach for America aims to close this achievement gap, allowing the poor to rise to new opportunities in college and beyond.
The draw of Teach for America is primarily an issue of social justice. A generation that longs for justice sees in education a means to achieving equity (note: the concept of equity is central to all of Teach for America). Why do we teach? To bring about social change and social justice. This has caught the hearts and minds of many of the most able young people in America.
Now, before I offer my incomplete critique, I should say that I heartily support Teach for America. Getting more talented young students to teach in inner city schools instead of sit in Wall Street offices is inherently a good thing.
Having said that, Teach for America is based on the philosophical premise based on equity. We must ask ourselves a simple question: what if this was achieved? If the achievement gap was closed, and every student performed exactly the same on standardized tests and in college entrance exams, would this be a good thing? When we look at it like this, it seems that this vision of using education to bring about universal social equity is based on a subtle socialism. Whether or not we could prove this is beside the point: education is the engine for social change. It is, in their view, the primary redemptive force.
What is left out of this equation? I would posit that what is missing here is any discussion of truth. Is it not interesting that what is taught receives a back seat (in motivation at least) to the social outcomes it provides? In a pluralist society in which even the concept of truth is suspect, one must step back and rethink the widespread draw of a movement like Teach for America. How is it that throngs of quick-minded young people, many of whom have had an elite education themselves, will throw themselves into a social cause with relatively little discussion of the state-shaped curriculum taught in public schools? Here, it is not teaching what is true that matters, but it is teaching in service a better (more equal) democratic society.
Contrast this with the Christian vision. Christianity is a story of universal history chronicling the words and activities of the one true God and His purposes for mankind. At the culmination of this story is the Christian gospel, the story of the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and second coming of Jesus. This story of good news has the power to transform an individual – to redeem from death, to regenerate, to “break the curse” of sin, and to give hope. The gospel then transforms men and women, and puts them on the path to goodness.
Yet the Christian faith is more than pietism. It is universal history, and as such, it gives a complete picture of both the natural and supernatural world. When fully understand, it is believed to be the landscape for seeing all things, from the intricacies of plant life to the artistry of literature. It is not just religious truth, it is the truth about all things.
And when this goodness and truth are combined in an individual, all of human life, both public and private, become, in a word, beautiful. God is able to turn even the destructiveness of sin in beauty, and as such, his covenant people move through culture and human life creating things of beauty. Indeed, secular people do this as well. But the Christian does this as witness to the beauty of God himself; he does this as an image-bearer and sub-creator reflecting the mind of the maker (to steal a phrase from Dorothy Sayers).
Goodness, truth and beauty overflow from the Christian gospel. There are the things that must be taught. This is what ought to captivate generations of young scholars and leaders who seek to form a better world. Using education as a pseudo-Savior can never really satisfy either teacher or student. For education to be truly powerful, it must look beyond itself.
I envision a different kind of movement…a movement I will blog about in my next post.
As a conservative, I like tests and test-scores. As a Christian, I like what you posit here much more. How might a classical education do testing? OR, is "testing" just a phenomenon of nationalizing education, when local is better? I'm trying to reconcile two philosophies of thought here....
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