Changing the face of education

Photo by: Will Gentry

 

Several Oklahoma Christian University students and alumni are among the thousands of participants in a nation-wide program that works to eliminate poverty and inequality in education. Each year, Teach For America (TFA) hires graduates from across the country to serve two-year commitments in the schools that need them most.

“The mission of [Teach For America] is to provide all students in the U.S. with the opportunity for an excellent education,” Oklahoma Christian and TFA alumnus Nathan Rix said. “TFA sends teachers to poor inner city or rural areas to provide excellent teaching in areas that might otherwise have teacher shortages or poor quality teachers.”

Rix, the son of Oklahoma Christian Professor of Bible Charles Rix, taught for TFA from 2008 to 2009.

“I taught middle school special education in the Bronx,” Rix said. “At the time it was America’s poorest congressional district.”

The children he taught faced many challenges, including gang violence, low reading levels and teacher apathy.

“This was a violent community; there was a drive-by shooting no more than 200 feet away from the school during my first six months,” Rix said. “In one year, my students grew in reading by an average of 1.8 years. There’s a stereotype that poor kids don’t have caring parents. That’s not completely true. There is, however, a substantial number of burned-out teachers that have stopped caring about making sure their students do not fall through the gaps.”

The mission of TFA is to catch struggling students before they fall through the gaps and they aim to accomplish that by placing the best and brightest new graduates in the areas that need the most help. To ensure that students are given the greatest opportunity to succeed, TFA applicants are required to complete a series of essays, phone calls and workshop-style interviews.

Many students find that TFA is a great steppingstone toward their future careers.

“I had plans to go to law school and the Teach For America two-year commitment was a great way to contribute to the mission and stay on path with my long-term career goals,” Oklahoma Christian alumnus Henson Adams said.

Adams taught for two years at Douglas High School in Oklahoma City and is currently attending the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.

Rix credits TFA with enhancing his early career preparation and understanding of social issues. After teaching for TFA, he studied economics and public policy.

“I was always interested in being the hands and feet of Christ to those in my community and wanted to be an attorney for the disenfranchised in society but wanted to understand the community before committing to law school,” Rix said. “I came out of the program being more interested in economics and the complex factors that lead to the structural poverty that affects so many inner cites in the U.S.”

Oklahoma Christian has two current students who have been accepted into the TFA program and will start teaching next fall after graduation – seniors Hannah Ketring and Katelyn Jackson.

“I was really excited about it,” Jackson said. “It’s a cool opportunity to get in schools and to begin doing something.”

Jackson is not only anticipating helping underprivileged children academically, but she also plans to impact their spiritual lives as well.

“It’s going to be a ministry even though [TFA] isn’t a Christian organization necessarily,” Jackson said. “It’s exactly what I think we’re called to do and it blows my mind that I’m able to have a chance at it.”

Jackson knows she will teach at an Oklahoma school district either in Oklahoma City or Tulsa, but she is not certain where at this point. She is certain, however, that she will teach secondary science. No matter where she is, Jackson is determined to give her students a unique classroom experience.

“I just want to be silly, and I want it to be fun,” Jackson said. “I also want it to be, you know, educational, but I want my students to not know what I’m going to do every day.”

While Jackson is enthusiastic about her own plans, she also relies on previous TFA participants for advice.

“I know the most beneficial thing to me was having alumni in the program help me with the process,” Jackson said.

No matter what their targeted career may be, each member of TFA walks away with a different appreciation of teaching and the importance of educational equality.

“Teachers have one of the toughest jobs on the planet,” Henson said. “My hat will forever be off to those teachers who have the strength and passion to stay in the classroom for their whole careers.”

Rix, who now works in the Governor of Oregon’s office, credits TFA for enabling him with a skillset and outlook that he uses to benefit thousands of people in his state. He stresses the importance of public services to those less fortunate in all aspects of living.

“I use my classroom experience with TFA to inform how I make sure projects increase Oregon’s livability standards,” Rix said. “Poverty is much more complex than education … but education is a decisive way to begin to transform students lives, one by one.”