As the city of Tuscaloosa grapples with the decision of whether to hire additional Teach for America corps members this upcoming year, it’s about time we as students begin to engage in a critical discussion regarding this organization as well. Teach for America has impressive recruiters and a PR campaign that could make the most steadfast opponent drop everything to teach in an inner city school.

Thousands of recent graduates opt to be a part of TFA every year. They’re making teaching sexy to brilliant college men and women who might never have considered it, and dozens of UA’s most influential and impressive graduates have heard the call. With so much in its favor, I worry that we as intelligent, able-bodied and optimistic students may be failing to look critically at some of TFA’s downsides.

So what is it about the TFA post-grad option that is so darn appealing? The attractions are many: the opportunity to live somewhere interesting and unfamiliar with a cohort of brilliant, socially-minded twenty-somethings, the thrill of what people say will be “the hardest thing you ever do,” a chance to learn the inner-workings of our educational system, a two-year deferral of real commitment. But what I believe is at the heart of my friends’ decisions to join TFA is a deep belief in the importance of a quality education for all children. This isn’t too far from TFA’s stated purpose: to close the achievement gap.

And don’t we all want to be a part of something with such a noble goal? The thought of it makes me tremble with hope. But when I look past my inward-focused feeling of, “But if I just change one life it will have been worth it!” and try looking at it objectively, I notice some serious shortcomings both practically and conceptually.

We owe it to ourselves as students to look past the emotionally charged success stories we’re fed and to look at the inconclusive data surrounding the influence of TFA on learning. And if the future of education is what we really care about, we owe it to our country.

Before making up your mind one way or the other, do some digging. Carefully review multiple studies with different results, and then make up your own mind. Listen to TFA members, and listen to experienced educators, those who have an understanding of the science that serves as the foundation for the art of teaching.

I agree with TFA that great teachers can make a huge difference. However, in meeting their goal of closing the achievement gap by providing brilliant college graduates to districts in need of good teachers, TFA is perpetuating the very problem it seeks to solve. TFA sees part of the problem with education as being a shortage of qualified teachers, and there’s no denying that this is true in many districts. Its solution is to fill those shortages with well-meaning college graduates who go through five weeks of “teacher boot camp” in the summer. By placing these individuals with no formal background in pedagogy or clinical experience into classrooms and regarding them not only as equal but often superior to teachers who went through traditional teacher education programs, we are diminishing the role of teachers as professionals. We are devaluing teacher education and reinforcing the incredibly low status of teachers in our current educational climate. And as the status of teaching declines, it is no wonder that there are growing shortages of career teachers. Who would want to give themselves to a career where their years of preparation will be met with a lack of respect and insufficient pay?

I often hear my peers discuss with concern the defensiveness of teachers and professors in the College of Education when it comes to Teach for America. They view this defensiveness as close-mindedness and a fear of change. They see teachers as naturally threatened by TFA members because they up the competition and challenge the status quo. If we were to listen a little bit closer, I think we could actually find professors on this campus who are as passionate about reforming education as we are – if not more. We’ll find teachers who are outraged by what they are forced to put up with in the name of “standards” and “achievement.” We’ll find that what teachers and scholars are attempting to defend is not their own livelihood, but teaching as it should be: an intellectually challenging, creative profession based on a deep understanding of both content and pedagogy.

Hallie Paul is a senior majoring in educational practice and policy through New College.