Training Teachers

The Times’ profile of the Teach for America program (Oct. 21) fails to mention the program’s fatal flaw: Teach for America’s entire premise is that college graduates can go into the classroom, do two years of “duty” and then move on to their “real” careers. This is nonsense.

It takes two years for new teachers simply to feel comfortable in the classroom. And then, each and every succeeding year is spent trying out new ideas and ways of reaching the students and implementing revised state standards.

For Teach for America to be a truly beneficial program, it must change its focus entirely, to that of training professional, career teachers. Otherwise, all the program is promoting is the standard American notion that teachers are a dime a dozen.

CAROL MAY

Los Angeles