I just went to the TFA website and am aghast at the horrible wages!

[Igel]

8. It's considered public service.

You graduate and typically aren't worried about daycare. It's a way to avoid hitting the job market for a while. Some go to grad school afterwards. Some go to business, having done a stint of socially-minded public service and "giving back".

The TFA candidates tend to be very good students, highly ranked in their classes. Some have, nonetheless, few marketable skills or, rather, few proven skills. TFA helps with that.

What a lot of people miss is the aspirational function of teaching. Teachers don't just teach content. They also teach attitudes and try to excite the imagination. When an Ivy League grad talks about school, kids can have one of two reactions (besides indifference, the lack of reaction): They can reject that as anything they might aspire to or they can look at it, picture themselves there, and aspire to such an education.