Welcome to the Movement

Hello, my name is Stuti Goswamy, and I am a 2007 Los Angeles Teach For America corps member. For the next two years, I'm going to teach 9th and 12th grade English at a LAUSD school in downtown LA. Over 95 percent of my students at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex are Latino. Less than half will graduate.

Before deciding to do this, I heard some negative things about Teach For America. One, how could I possibly enact positive change in only two years? And two, did I have the right motivations for joining TFA? If you'll excuse my self-indulgence, I would like to address both criticisms. First, I don't expect to stop trying to close the achievement gap after two years. Once you know about this problem, you never stop caring, and you never stop trying to close the gap. I might not teach in the classroom after two years, but I'll be working - in whatever profession and in whatever capacity - to erase educational inequality. America and the rest of the world face the same problem: the Haves and the Have-Nots engaging in battle every day. Some kids (and now I have to be self-critical... some kids like me) have had every educational opportunity - from encouraging parents, to good schools and, most importantly, to good teachers. Some kids get low expectations and lower opportunities. And these kids are almost always located in low-income communities. In the short run, I'm going to make sure that the almost two-hundred kids that I will have in the next two years will be held to the highest expectations. I'm promising them a good teacher. Second, I wouldn't dare question my motivations. I joined TFA because I was questioning America's motivations. I was angry. I was so certain that I was going to graduate college in order to fix the problems in the developing world. And then I looked closer and realized that my own country would continue to Talk Big and Rule Mighty without addressing our most ugly problem. Sure, we all know that poverty exists in America. But did you know that 1200 kids entered 9th grade in a school in Compton? That only 200 of those kids graduated in four years? That only 15 of them were going to college? I didn't until my senior year of college! How can we ignore this issue - and why is it so easy not to know about it? I am frustrated with myself for not knowing for so long. So I'm doing this, and I'm going to share my story along the way so that you, too, can know about the problem, and so that you, too, can believe that we can one day close the achievement gap. Erase the very great distinction between what it means to Have and what is absolutely destroys to Have-Not. Welcome to the movement.