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Yes, yes, you're very enlightened, we Americans recognize the innate superiority of the European educational system, have a lollipop. (I think I'm justified in assuming that's where you're from).

Now, would you cut out the snide smugness and come HELP US fight these religious fundamentalist zealots? I dunno, donate some Euros to Teach for America, encourage exchange programs between your country and Texas, anything.

If this really bothers you, quit making wisecracks and do something about it.

Former Teach For America high school computer science and math teacher here. (I also taught at a school funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's High Tech High initiative noted in the summary.)

First, some positive comments. It's great to see studies like those mentioned in the Newsweek article attracting eyeballs in academia and the popular press. The conclusions may seem to border on the tautological for most of us (great teachers are great at teaching!), but such ideas are largely verboten in the public school system. If you haven't already RTFA, I'd suggest The Atlantic's treatment of the same material.

Anecdotally, I can fully corroborate Teach For America's data. Both in my school as well as those of my TFA colleagues, teachers that continually pushed themselves to excel and improve in their craft were able to consistently produce jaw-dropping results in their students' test scores. It really is amazing. As an example, I co-taught a summer school pre-calculus class with another TFAer in Watts a few years ago. We somehow managed to march through three years worth of material in those two months; our students went from being on average two grade levels behind to slightly above grade level. I attribute this success to Teach For America's philosophy of teacher excellence (which is similar to 'kaizen' in many regards).

The summary asks "What makes a good teacher?" This is the wrong question. There is no one thing that will make a teacher great (vibrant personality, deep subject knowledge, an M.S. Ed., etc.). Rather, it is an attitude that is willing to try anything (and, conversely, promptly reject the ineffective) to make students succeed. To use a math analogy, it is the second derivative that matters, not the current value or even the slope.

Disclaimer: this post does not necessarily reflect the views of my former employers.

What precisely do they do? I just visited their site and they don't actually tell you. I actually am sending the following in an email to press.center@teachforamerica.org:

Is it just me, or is it foolish and confusing to have a button labeled "What we do" that takes you to a page that doesn't explain what you do?

The page in question provides some statistics and says that "it doesn't have to be this way" and then fails to actually say anything about how it can be different, or what you are doing to change it.

Someone suggested your organization as an alternative to what someone was doing for a living already... so I visited your website, tried to find out what it is that you do, and I still don't know.

This is not a very effective distribution of your message.

I realize you can find the information by clicking one additional like (a small-fonted one in the sidebar and not in the middle of the page where the reader's attention is focused) but someone clearly doesn't understand web design...

Seriously, try it. Visit teachforamerica.org, click on "What We Do", and solely from the information on that page, try to figure out what they do. Naturally, I'm not sending the email to the webmaster, who would probably do what I do with messages like that :D

I would partially agree with the AC. We can't forget to also help our country. There are many ways to do this, one being AmeriCorps, TeachForAmerica, etc. Volunteering at a soup kitchen, battered women's shelter, etc. Helping out your community/country is just as important as helping out a third world country. Polarizing the issue between helping 3rd world vs helping local society, is what part of your argument I would disagree with.

Whenever the economy takes a downturn, it is wise to broaden your employment options by broadening your possible careers. While the glitz and glamour of working 40 hours a week on building Linux clusters is great, there are only a few of those positions available. Since the job market is in a downswing for programmers, possibly check out other arenas of employment. For example, the educational market is in desparate need for individuals with a technical background to teach math and science classes. While it may not be exactly what you want to do, it will provide you with experience, those greatly appreciated communication skills, and diversity in your resume. If education is not your bag, why not consider doing something with government or nonprofit organizations? Since the tech boom of a few years back, the need for individuals with computer skills in government jobs has skyrocketed. But most programmers have shied away from the lower-than-corporate salaries, but there are amazing oppotunities to work on some incredible projects for the government. If you have an international penchant, you could even sign up for the Peace Corps, or look into becoming an Information Management Specialist for the U.S. State Department or Foreign Service. I know that the Peace Corps is in search of individuals who can implement information technology programs aborad, and a two year committment to this program would wow them at your next job interview.

I always thought it would be really cool to do something like that. Especially if you could get a computer science class going, or an after school club. There are lots of free tools that you can use to create really great lab projects. (Even Microsoft has free development packages - check out the development environment they provide for FREE for WindowsCE. It even comes with neat emulators.)

So, you could get a chance to be THE COOL TEACHER and you could really paint a vision for kids of their own futures that they might not otherwise get. And, you would get some time to wind down and think about what you really want to do for your life.