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Teach for America has been sending graduates from top universities to poor communities for 20 years. In addition to teaching, they are meant to be role models for their students. Now the idea is implemented in Germany, too – but not everyone is happy with that.

In Germany, the organization is named Teach First Germany, and is thus, at least by name, closer to its British equivalent Teach First. But the mission is the same as the US orginial’s: Sending highly motivated candidates with strong academic credentials and active community involvement to poor and disadvantaged communities. There, the “fellows” will teach for two years, trying to engage and motivate the children in their schools who have been left behind by the public educational system.

The idea is based on the peace corps, which is why participants in the US are referred to as “corps members”. In Germany, the less military-sounding “fellow” was chosen. This was not the only change necessary to translate the program to the Germany environment. Kaija Landsberg, the energetic 29-year old founder of Teach First Germany, makes sure to point out that unlike in the US, Teach First participants will not fill regular teacher positions in Germany. They are there as additional support, to organize after-school activities, extra help, parent-teacher meetings and the like. Teaching classes will be a side activity, not the focal point of the engagement.

Participants often have no former teaching experience

The young professionals, while excellent students, will mostly hold degrees not related to teaching. They’ll receive a three-month intensive training before they are placed in the schools. Feedback sessions, mentors and professional development are planned to help them improve their skills throughout the two years.

Still, teacher unions are critical of the approach. They fear that regular jobs will be cut nonetheless and demand that the money spend on Teach First be used to hire recent graduates that went through the official teacher training programs (on a side note, teacher training is more standardized in Germany. You have to have a college degree in education in order to get into the teaching profession).

Who profits from Teach First, asks the teacher’s union

Essentially, the teacher’s union in Berlin brands the program as more of an assessment centre for socially handicapped upper-class kids than an effort to help disadvantaged schools and children. (I’ve written a more extensive report on this subject at Tagesspiegel.de)

Also, it is no easy task ahead of the junior teachers. Corps members of Teach for America blog on teachfor.us about their experience, detailing hardships and joyous moments alike. Stolen computers, constant disruption, more than a year behind the expected reading level – but getting students involved in activities they always rejected and seeing their progress seems to make the downsides worth it.

“Mr. D”, teaching music in the Mississippi delta, tells of participating in a debate contest and writes of his students:

“They were in the zone for the entire 2 hours, scrambling at the end to try to finish. They couldn’t stop talking about it after they handed in their work and one student said “Mr. D!!! My brain hurts after doing that!!” You have no idea how happy it made me to hear that.”

Program to start in three German states in the fall

Apparently, the applicants in Germany hope for similar experiences. I talked to one who said she wanted to be “a cool teacher” – a valid goal considering the German teaching force has a median age of about 50. She also wanted to empower the children, giving them enough knowledge so that they wouldn’t be kicked around by the system.

Teach First Germany moves state-by-state, unlike Teach for America, who targets specific areas. Berlin will be one of the first three German states to employ Teach First participants in the fall, the other two being Hamburg and Northrhine-Westfalia. Unfortunately, there are quite enough schools in the city that’d need some encouragement.

By Jessica Binsch

Head to teachfirst.de for more information and application materials.