Other than that, bless the folks who can handle a classroom full of kids whose parents may be looking for offense.

There are many fine teachers who came out of the military; I currently work with one on a project to bring employees of a major technology corporation into classrooms as teachers. The guy in Philadelphia, however? He was NOT a good teacher, and not likely to become one. You don’t have to love kids in order to teach them, but you do have to be able to have respectful conversations with them. His punishment strategy was an abject failure; he was no longer the rational adult in the room, something you must be in order to maintain order and deliver instruction. He was not Air Force, BTW, Parentalcation (grin).

As for the dedicated “missionary,” excelling in their first two years–well, the research is very clear that everyone sucks, pretty much, in their first couple of years. The “Photo Finish” study from Education Next (which is all about supporting alt entry teachers) admits that virtually nobody is effective at first. That’s because teaching is a harder job than it seems. Even Darren admits he wouldn’t have made it through even one year without military training.

Saying that MS math teachers would probably not pass HS algebra is one of those casual slurs against teachers some folks seem to think are OK, even kind of hip, lately. I guess I’m more interested in bringing good teachers into diverse classrooms and giving them the training and support to keep them there. Strong content knowledge is necessary but not sufficient for effective teaching. In fact, teachers with PhDs in content domains are among the least effective, measured by their students’ test results.

I still maintain that’s hard to identify a demographic that will necessarily yield “the best” teachers.

I would not have made it through my first year teaching had I not had my military training to fall back on. All training in the army had tasks, conditions, and standards associated with it. Does that sound at all like a Madeleine Hunter objective statement? It does to me, too.

Oh, and I’m also the “I love school, valedictorian-type”. Go figure.

The issue for me is not what makes a good teacher but what makes an acceptable teacher. Granted, becoming a good teacher is a complex and difficult tax. But I would argue that the modal teacher in a public school is neither good nor particularly deep. They are at best ordinary, and at worst, just poorly trained. In that case, a bright, dedicated “missionary” teacher who works for just 2 years may in fact be a superior alternative to the bottom third of the existing teacher network.

Certainly in math, a young product of the army with an engineering background will almost certainly be a better teacher than the many middle school teacher who would have great difficult passing high school level algebra. He may not be “good” in your ideal sense. But he will be better than many of the on-the-ground alternatives kids have to deal with.

And if there were more teachers with anger towards “young, mouthy” kids and a greater willingness to impose real punishment, the world would be a much, much better place.

I think both programs have their place. They both bring teachers into disadvantaged and low income schools.

I would proposed expanding both programs.

I e-mentored a Troops to Teachers guy in Philadephia. He quit after a couple months of marching middle schoolers up and down the stairs as punishment for their misbehaviors. (I’m not making this up.) The anger he felt toward the young, mouthy kids he encountered oozed out of the screen. Some moms finally complained about his rough treatment of their daughters (and this was a place where parents weren’t, shall we say, showing up much) and even teacher-starved Philly asked him to leave.

The one personality type I most worry about as a prospective teacher, oddly, is the I-love-school, valedictorian type. I’ve seen several of them bite the dust, along with their expectation that their students will love school, and try as hard to get As as they did.

He probably doesn’t mind. He probably has to deal with ignorant Southern hicks all the time.

R.J., the ribbing was made in gest…, and I am not a teacher… still on active duty.

But… since I imagine most TFA’ers are in their 20′s… three wars and a decade gives us older coots permission to throw out a couple of youthful jabs, but I suppose any chance of me getting hired by network television is out the window.

Besides… I am only jealous that I was too lazy in my own schooling to get into the Ivy League.