IDEALISM RENEWED BY SWITCHING SYSTEMS.Byline: - Naush Boghossian It took just a few months into her first year teaching at an inner-city school for Carolyn Strom's idealism idealism, the attitude that places special value on ideas and ideals as products of the mind, in comparison with the world as perceived through the senses. In art idealism is the tendency to represent things as aesthetic sensibility would have them rather than as about her profession to fade. As a participant in the Teach for America Teach For America (TFA) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to close the academic achievement gap between children from different socio-economic backgrounds. program, Strom wanted to teach in a disadvantaged This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details. This article has been tagged since September 2007. neighborhood and make a difference in the lives of students who needed it most. But there were no paper or pens or even books at the Compton school where she was assigned, she said, and she spent more than $5,000 of her own money to buy the most critical supplies. ``I was in a school system that did not work. I felt I couldn't grow as a teacher there. I felt like I wanted to come to a school where I could be part of the governance process,'' said Strom, 28, a University of Pennsylvania (body, education) University of Pennsylvania - The home of ENIAC and Machiavelli. http://upenn.edu/. Address: Philadelphia, PA, USA. graduate. ``I felt that there was only so much change I could do working for a school like that.'' Two years into her job, she called Teach for America with the intention of quitting. Instead, they assigned her to Fenton Avenue Elementary, a charter school in the north San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , where she got everything she needed and wanted: students from low-income families and a supportive teaching environment. ``The kids looked the same but the teachers were happy, dressed professionally and they were teaching. It was uplifting. Teaching is a wonderful profession, but a lot of the schools don't treat teachers like professionals,'' she said. ``Our educational system is determined so much by socioeconomics, it's unfair. I wanted to experience work in a low-income school and be part of that change.'' The teachers' morale was high and they had the resources and support they needed to make that difference, Strom said. She has her own computer and high-tech gadgets at her fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States. , but most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent" above all, most especially , colleagues and an administration that encourage her to do what she feels is best for the students. ``Here, my instruction is able to improve because I can focus on being a teacher. I have everything I need to do the best I can. There are no obstacles here to be the best teacher I can, except for any limitations I put on myself.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: ``I was in a school system that did not work,'' Carolyn Strom says of her pre-charter job. David Sprague/Staff Photographer |
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