Spring Break
Letters to the Editor
Issue date: 1/30/07 Section: Editorials
Teach for America works to eliminate inequalities
In response to the Jan. 23 article "Volunteers put Miami on the map with alternate grad plans," I would like to explain more about Teach For America as a post-graduation opportunity.
The "achievement gap" in the American education system is a matter of both race and class. Across the U.S., a gap in academic achievement persists between minority and disadvantaged students and their white counterparts. By the time they are in the fourth grade, students in low-income communities are already three grade levels behind their peers in high-income communities. Half of them won't graduate from high school, and those who do graduate will, on average, have the reading and math skills of an eighth grader. In light of this disparity, many view educational inequity as our nation's most crippling social issue.
Teach For America is the national corps of recent college graduates working in low-income communities across the country to make this a reality. Our corps members commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. Our mission is to enlist the nation's most promising future leaders in the movement to eliminate educational injustice. Corps members work relentlessly to ensure that more students growing up today in our country's lowest income communities are given the educational opportunities they deserve.
Many alumni remain in education. Others work from different fields to address the challenges outside the classroom that affect low-income communities. Our alumni have found that their corps experience allows them to work more effectively for change throughout their careers.
While the problem of educational inequity is certainly daunting, corps members find evidence every day in classrooms across the country that when students in low-income communities are given the educational opportunities they deserve, they excel. It is the clear potential of students that makes the disparities in educational outcomes so unconscionable and fuels our sense of urgency and responsibility to do everything we can end them.
The final application deadline for the 2007 corps is Feb.18. Teach for America is open to students interested in promoting social change through the advancement of education. Our corps members are hired as teachers and receive full salary and health benefits. Please visit www.teachforamerica.org for more information.
Jennifer Howard
Teach for America
Miami University Recruitment Dir.
jennifer.howard@
teachforamerica.org
Che embodies noble ideals for everyone
I was severely disturbed when I read Brian Graney's Jan. 26 perspective. This article was an extremely biased, misinformed and exaggerated slandering of an admirable man. There are countless references referring to Che as a "murderous thug" who's favorite pastime is "killing anyone" but there is little truth in these remarks. It also was brought up that many of his prisoners were never given fair trials. While this may be true, it is an inconvenient truth of war that there is often neither the time nor the means for such privileges. Abraham Lincoln also suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. Che is no more of a violent "thug" than any other man in history who has been passionate enough to fight for a noble cause which he truly believes in.
Which brings me to my next point. Che's cause is not to make communism the dominant economic system in the world by fighting his enemies, "greedy capitalists - better known as Americans." Che's cause was a struggle for the oppressed, weak and impoverished who could not rise up on their own. He only arrived at communism as a solution to the gross socioeconomic inequality that faced the people of the Americas at his time. He traveled around South America as a youth as illustrated in 2004's The Motorcycle's Diaries and on this journey he witnessed firsthand the horrific plight of the lower class. No big deal, right? I mean, who is not touched when they drive past slums, thanking God for their blessings or mumbling up a quick prayer for them? But this is the part where you need to pay attention. It is not the empathy and compassion of Che that is admired. It is his actions and absolute willingness to accept pain and injustice for other people. Guevara once said, "If you tremble at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine" and it is this attitude that makes him so admired and respected.
Che sacrificed himself like few others throughout history have. He left medical school and a promising future as a young adult to pursue his revolutionary ideals. He stayed on for a short while in a high governmental position in Cuba after the revolution but never accepted a salary for it and took only meager reimbursements as an army combatant. He left Cuba to fight for other oppressed nations. His last stop, Bolivia, turned into a large failure. But even so he was reported to have given medical attention to his captives and released most of them, and even when he was eventually captured he offered medical attention to them while waiting to be executed. His last words, "Shoot, coward, you kill but a man" are powerful words resonating with the sacrificial and unglorified outlook of this man.
Now for me to sit here and contend that Che did not have any faults would truly be ignorant. But to fault a man for violently fighting for a noble cause he believed passionately in is hypocritical and ignorant. Che's actions ring especially true in today's world. For instance, what has the U.S.done to stop the genocide in Darfur? It is people like Che who we need now, someone who takes action to solve injustice. Which is worse, fighting in the name of revolution and liberation or doing nothing when genocide is occurring? And as a "greedy capitalist" I have chosen … nothing. And this is my "logical explanation" as to why I admire Che. When I sit here in my nice college dorm room I can't help but remember being a kid and wanting to make a difference, to really give myself to helping others. And I can't help but feel anything but disgust for the cold, disenfranchised, preoccupied person I have become. So these "killer shirts" and posters are necessary to remind us of who we wanted to be as children - of someone who exhibited more courage and sacrifice in a day than most of us will in a lifetime. As Che said, "We cannot remain indifferent in the face of what occurs in any part of the world," and I can only hope to live in this way.
GREG STARK
starkgr@muohio.edu
In response to the Jan. 23 article "Volunteers put Miami on the map with alternate grad plans," I would like to explain more about Teach For America as a post-graduation opportunity.
The "achievement gap" in the American education system is a matter of both race and class. Across the U.S., a gap in academic achievement persists between minority and disadvantaged students and their white counterparts. By the time they are in the fourth grade, students in low-income communities are already three grade levels behind their peers in high-income communities. Half of them won't graduate from high school, and those who do graduate will, on average, have the reading and math skills of an eighth grader. In light of this disparity, many view educational inequity as our nation's most crippling social issue.
Teach For America is the national corps of recent college graduates working in low-income communities across the country to make this a reality. Our corps members commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. Our mission is to enlist the nation's most promising future leaders in the movement to eliminate educational injustice. Corps members work relentlessly to ensure that more students growing up today in our country's lowest income communities are given the educational opportunities they deserve.
Many alumni remain in education. Others work from different fields to address the challenges outside the classroom that affect low-income communities. Our alumni have found that their corps experience allows them to work more effectively for change throughout their careers.
While the problem of educational inequity is certainly daunting, corps members find evidence every day in classrooms across the country that when students in low-income communities are given the educational opportunities they deserve, they excel. It is the clear potential of students that makes the disparities in educational outcomes so unconscionable and fuels our sense of urgency and responsibility to do everything we can end them.
The final application deadline for the 2007 corps is Feb.18. Teach for America is open to students interested in promoting social change through the advancement of education. Our corps members are hired as teachers and receive full salary and health benefits. Please visit www.teachforamerica.org for more information.
Jennifer Howard
Teach for America
Miami University Recruitment Dir.
jennifer.howard@
teachforamerica.org
Che embodies noble ideals for everyone
I was severely disturbed when I read Brian Graney's Jan. 26 perspective. This article was an extremely biased, misinformed and exaggerated slandering of an admirable man. There are countless references referring to Che as a "murderous thug" who's favorite pastime is "killing anyone" but there is little truth in these remarks. It also was brought up that many of his prisoners were never given fair trials. While this may be true, it is an inconvenient truth of war that there is often neither the time nor the means for such privileges. Abraham Lincoln also suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. Che is no more of a violent "thug" than any other man in history who has been passionate enough to fight for a noble cause which he truly believes in.
Which brings me to my next point. Che's cause is not to make communism the dominant economic system in the world by fighting his enemies, "greedy capitalists - better known as Americans." Che's cause was a struggle for the oppressed, weak and impoverished who could not rise up on their own. He only arrived at communism as a solution to the gross socioeconomic inequality that faced the people of the Americas at his time. He traveled around South America as a youth as illustrated in 2004's The Motorcycle's Diaries and on this journey he witnessed firsthand the horrific plight of the lower class. No big deal, right? I mean, who is not touched when they drive past slums, thanking God for their blessings or mumbling up a quick prayer for them? But this is the part where you need to pay attention. It is not the empathy and compassion of Che that is admired. It is his actions and absolute willingness to accept pain and injustice for other people. Guevara once said, "If you tremble at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine" and it is this attitude that makes him so admired and respected.
Che sacrificed himself like few others throughout history have. He left medical school and a promising future as a young adult to pursue his revolutionary ideals. He stayed on for a short while in a high governmental position in Cuba after the revolution but never accepted a salary for it and took only meager reimbursements as an army combatant. He left Cuba to fight for other oppressed nations. His last stop, Bolivia, turned into a large failure. But even so he was reported to have given medical attention to his captives and released most of them, and even when he was eventually captured he offered medical attention to them while waiting to be executed. His last words, "Shoot, coward, you kill but a man" are powerful words resonating with the sacrificial and unglorified outlook of this man.
Now for me to sit here and contend that Che did not have any faults would truly be ignorant. But to fault a man for violently fighting for a noble cause he believed passionately in is hypocritical and ignorant. Che's actions ring especially true in today's world. For instance, what has the U.S.done to stop the genocide in Darfur? It is people like Che who we need now, someone who takes action to solve injustice. Which is worse, fighting in the name of revolution and liberation or doing nothing when genocide is occurring? And as a "greedy capitalist" I have chosen … nothing. And this is my "logical explanation" as to why I admire Che. When I sit here in my nice college dorm room I can't help but remember being a kid and wanting to make a difference, to really give myself to helping others. And I can't help but feel anything but disgust for the cold, disenfranchised, preoccupied person I have become. So these "killer shirts" and posters are necessary to remind us of who we wanted to be as children - of someone who exhibited more courage and sacrifice in a day than most of us will in a lifetime. As Che said, "We cannot remain indifferent in the face of what occurs in any part of the world," and I can only hope to live in this way.
GREG STARK
starkgr@muohio.edu
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