One

So I’m sitting on the bus on my way to school, getting ready to meet the children I will be teaching and responsible for passing on during summer school as part of the Institute and I decided that I would try and collect some thoughts to share. It’s long.

First, the 2008 NYC Corps is awesome! Everyone here is so amazing and nice and accomplished. I have two roommates from Princeton, my teaching partner went to Yale, and have met students who went to Columbia, Stanford, Brown, UPenn, and nearly every top school in the nation. Needless to say I feel a little inadequate in the intelligence arena, but that’s ok because we all got into TFA and we are all here and leadership and relentless pursuit is more key than where we got our education. Oh, and there are about 7 girls for every guy, so I’m pretty stoked about that ratio.

Also, as some of you may be surprised to hear, I’m one of the most conservative corps members here. There is something comforting about being around people with similar political ideologies, however as a Christian there are certain beliefs I have that alienate me. I would still consider myself morally conservative, so being in this environment has been a little tough, and surprising.

What’s been tougher, however, is hearing the stories from colleagues of very diverse and low-income backgrounds about their interactions with the affluent white community, especially those calling themselves Christian. One of the girls in my small group got thrown out of her house in high school as gentrification began taking over this city. They speak of Harlem being an up-and-coming city: more investment bankers are locating there; it’s becoming “cleaner” and “safer”; and new affordable sky-rises are being built. What happens to the “thriving culture” all the books use to describe this area of the city though? What happens to the people who have live there for years? The residents of Harlem, some of the poorest people in our nation, are now being placed on the streets, or forced to live in the dangerous projects. It’s no wonder these people turn to drugs, have a distorted view of white people, and decide to solicit themselves for sex. I am reminded of my favorite quote by (my favorite) artist Banksy:

“The human race is an unfair and stupid competition. A lot of the runners don’t even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water. Some people are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side. It’s not surprising some people have given up competing altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk food and shout abuse. What we need in this race is a lot more streakers."

Teach For America corps members are streakers.

Last year at Pepperdine I was able to have an incredible small group discussion with one of my favorite authors Shane Claiborne. When asked about his political beliefs and stances on controversial issues within the “Church,” he said that he refrains from telling people what to think, or even what he thinks. Rather, he explained to us how he simply tells stories that convey meaning. He said this is what Jesus did; what Mother Theresa, who he studied with, did. He said that no one can argue with stories. (Now of course in politics stories are used out of context all the time; but they usually aren’t stories that come from real experiences the candidates have with real communities…they were simply stories from a five minute conversation with or the reading of a letter of a “real person” in America). I bring this up because this is how I am going to choose to frame my emails, hopefully. I won’t tell you that I think you should vote for candidate X because he has a better education plan; I won’t tell you I think it’s important for everyone to fight for educational equity or seek justice. I will, rather, write to you stories of my 9th and 10th grade students reading on a 5th grade level; I will share my interactions with students who fall asleep in class, unable to concentrate because they didn’t eat last night or have a bed to sleep on. I hope that my experiences will speak to you in whatever way they should. I hope that you won’t allow my experiences to be something to look at and say you are proud of me because I am fighting for equality. I hope they instead that they spark a reaction for you to look for ways to create your own stories as well; to step out of your comfort zones and embody a different “white” or “affluent” or “Christian” person that the poor are used to being affected by. I know many of you have created these stories and experiences…but continue to find more, to do more. I hope that reading my emails won’t be easy because I want to challenge you as I am challenging myself; I can’t be alone in my efforts or it won’t be for much. This isn’t going to be easy for me, I can already tell. But I am doing it. It’s only the beginning for me and there will be times that I want to quit, but with your support I know that it won’t be an option for me.

I apologize for this long email but it has been an accumulation of thoughts over the past week as I haven’t had enough time to sit down and finish all my thoughts in one sitting. I love you all and your support means the world to me.


for the wild,
andrew