Teach for America's Wendy Kopp made a short trip to Mumbai to see Teach for India at work
Teach for America's Wendy Kopp made a short trip to Mumbai to see Teach for India at work
Wendy Kopp hates the spotlight. And by her stiff stance and smile, we're guessing the founder of Teach For America doesn't enjoy posing for the camera either. On the last leg of her trip to Mumbai, Kopp breezes in and out of conference halls at the Akanksha Foundation Office (which is where Teach For India functions from), alternately clutching a mobile phone, a bag and a half-eaten slice of pizza. It's hard to believe that this unassuming slender 42-year-old has, for over two decades, stuck fast to her cause: equal education for all.
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How it all began
It was in 1988 that Kopp, then a student of Princeton University, got to thinking about teaching. "I was always interested in the disparities of society... how where you study depends on where you were born. I felt our generation was searching for something...u00a0 That's how Teach For America (TFA) came about." A non-profit organisation, TFA picks students fresh out of college to take on two-year teaching stints at lower-economic schools.
Apparently, Princeton University wasn't excited with the idea initially. How about Kopp's family? She says: "My family has never viewed my work with as much interest as they view me as their daughter."
Much convincing later, TFA was established in 1989. "I don't think anyone thought we'd become so big. That 11 per cent Ivy League students would compete to be chosen by TFA, that 15 per cent graduates from Princeton would be potential TFA fellows (teachers) or that we'd have nearly five lakh students."
Getting there wasn't easy. Three years into it and TFA had a bad time, the 'dark years' as Kopp puts them. "Our funders backed out," she explains. Kopp never lost faith, though she admits to having sometimes questioned whether things would improve. They did.
Compete to teach
In 2008, Shaheen Mistry, founder, Akanksha, helped set up Teach For India in Mumbai and Pune. There are currently 3,000 students and 87 teachers across Mumbai and Pune. "We'd like to expand TFI all over the country," she says.
Kopp was in town to watch the TFI fellows at work. "Their commitment is just incredible," she says warmly.
Kopp thinks there are several differences between the students in India and the US ("Here, most have to learn English along with other subjects"), but she points out that their backgrounds do have similarities.
Remembering a teacher
Both women claim to have been highly influenced by their own teachers. Mistry's favourite is her zoology professor in 10th grade. "He was so interesting! He had brought up Siberian tigers... he could really bring the subject to life," she recalls.
For Kopp, it was Mrs Fish in the seventh grade. "I was a perfectly strong student until Mrs Fish came along. She pushed us so much. There was no talk of low expectations from anyone. She was stubborn that all of us put in our best," says Kopp.
Two-year tenure
Educational experts claim that two years is too short a period for the fellows to teach they leave right when they're learning how to teach. But Kopp doesn't agree. "Several of our recruits go on to become management officials, lawyers, doctors, engineers etc. Two years is a significant amount of time for them."
IIT student Yash Kumar thinks so too. Kumar, a budding chemical engineer, is a new recruit at TFI. He admits that his mother, a Hindi teacher, was strongly opposed to his idea of teaching for two years before taking on a job. The youngster from Ranchi has his days packed. He leaves for school every morning at 7 am to teach mathematics and English to Chinchpokli children. This is followed by extra tuitions... then training sessions and planning lessons for the next day.
"My students are like those of any other school. Some parents takeu00a0 interest in their kids' studies, others not so much."
Does he ever feel a pinch considering he could have been drawing a salary triple the amount he makes now? He replies, "I wouldn't be here if such a thought had crossed my mind. It was a conscious decision which I'm happy about."
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