Keeping Faith
The eight young individuals residing in a former convent in this Washington suburb defy the stereotype of apathetic, self-centered young people that is often associated with the post-baby-boom generation. These recent college graduates have dedicated themselves to a demanding schedule, waking up early in the morning to teach school all day and staying late to provide algebra tutoring or coach basketball. On weekdays and Saturdays, these teachers become students themselves, enrolling in graduate courses to pursue a master’s degree in education.
After a long day of teaching and learning, the teachers return to their house, one of three former convents in the Washington area that they share. They cooperate in chores just like they did when they lived with their parents. Despite the sacrifices they make, these young individuals, who have the potential to pursue various career paths, receive a meager annual stipend of $7,500 along with free tuition for their graduate studies. They are all members of the Teacher Service Corps, an initiative by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. This program aims to address the shortage of teachers, especially for inner-city schools, amidst tight school budgets of local parishes. Attracting lay teachers to these demanding and low-paying jobs presents a challenge, and the dwindling numbers of religious orders further exacerbates this issue.
In many ways, the service corps, established in 1986, anticipated the Teach For America program that gained attention nationwide. Like Teach For America, the Teacher Service Corps aims to attract individuals who may not have initially considered a career in teaching and motivate them to remain in the field. So far, it has proven successful. Out of the initial 11 corps members who joined in fall 1991, seven are still teaching. Four of them teach within the archdiocese, which includes the District of Columbia and several Maryland counties, and one teaches at another Catholic school.
The fourth cohort of the service corps, consisting of 22 members, began this fall. Thirteen out of the 16 members who started the previous year returned for a second year. Committing to at least one year, and often an expected two, in such a demanding program is not a decision many would make. However, the archdiocese consistently receives a high number of applicants, ranging from 150 to 200 each year, for just 10 to 15 available spots. Some individuals join the program for the teaching experience, while others are driven by the opportunity to engage in community service.
John McCaul, the oldest member at 28, pursued a career working with children after feeling unfulfilled in his previous job selling hats and mugs. Katie Krzyston, 25, became passionate about community service through her volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity while studying at the Catholic University of America. Maura O’Hare, 23, majored in education and had always planned to become a teacher. However, she felt compelled to assist inner-city Catholic schools in their struggle to recruit teachers. Sister Rose Mary Collins, the program’s director, and Jean M. Plummer, a former corps member and assistant director, actively recruit promising college students. They visit Catholic and secular campuses across the country, often spreading the word through career or service fairs and campus ministry offices. Almost all applicants have engaged in some form of service during college. Most applicants come from the East Coast or the Midwest, with certain universities like Villanova University, the University of Notre Dame, and Loyola College regularly providing interested undergraduates.
Despite efforts to recruit minority applicants, the Teacher Service Corps remains predominantly white and middle-class. Most members work in inner-city schools where the student population is primarily low-income and black.
Community Life
In the group home here, on a recent evening, the young teachers are engaging in friendly banter and teasing, creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere reminiscent of a close-knit family. Some of them have been invited from another teacher-corps group house for the evening. These teachers, who are all in their second year in the program, have gained enough confidence and distance from their first year to laugh about the difficulties they faced.
The first year of teaching is a challenging experience for anyone, particularly for those who are not education majors. To prepare for their teaching roles, the corps members spend the summer before their service taking education courses at Trinity College in Washington, with the program covering their tuition fees. They also observe experienced classroom teachers. However, despite these preparations, they often feel ill-prepared for their specific assignments, as they only find out a few days before starting.
The first year of teaching is characterized by constant stress and exhaustion, according to Michael Knab, a 23-year-old teacher at St. Michael’s School. Despite appearing confident and in control during his lesson on Holy Land geography, Knab admits that this confidence is something he had to learn to fake early on. The first year of teaching is such a tough experience that some corps members contemplated quitting. Laurie Sessa, 23, states that she learned more in her first year of teaching than in any other year of her life. She had to deal with friction with her principal and a lack of support. This year, she transferred to another school where she teaches middle grades.
For those who have been their own bosses before, like McCaul, it can be a challenge to have someone else in charge of their lives. Living arrangements in the program also presented difficulties. For example, ten teachers lived in a rented house around 45 minutes away from Washington. The house was cramped, with four people sharing the lone basement bedroom.
The commute was a surprising change for some, like McCaul, who expected to walk or use public transportation but ended up having to drive himself and other corps members to work and class. This added up to an hour and a half of commuting each day, sometimes bringing him home as late as 10:30 P.M. The commuting and organizing ride-sharing became unexpectedly time-consuming and resulted in repair bills for the car owners. McCaul wishes he had known about these expenses earlier, although he still would have joined the program.
The best part of the program, according to Knab, is the sense of community that comes with living together. “Having that kind of support when you come home is truly powerful and beneficial,” he notes. Although O’Hare sometimes wishes she could find her dishes where she left them, Paul Smith, who is an only child, enjoys having other people around. To him, it feels like having brothers and sisters. McCaul also appreciates living with other first-year teachers because it reminds him that even on his worst days, someone else has likely experienced a similar situation.
However, the continuous connection between work and home can become overwhelming at times, leading the housemates to declare a moratorium on work-related topics. Living in a communal environment also means adhering to house rules and taking turns cleaning the bathroom or grocery shopping. It can also mean sacrificing an active social life, as overnight guests of a romantic nature are not allowed. Sister Collins discourages dating among the corps members. While there is no control over romantic behavior outside of the group house, corps members recognize that having a significant other may not fit well into their busy and group-oriented schedules.
Tough Financial Situations
The process of repaying student loans obtained during undergraduate studies can be a challenging and bureaucratic ordeal for members of the Teacher Service Corps. Sister Collins takes it upon herself to assist corps members individually in seeking deferments for their loans. Some are successful in obtaining a deferral because they are part-time graduate students. Others are able to defer their loans through a federal community-service program, but are prohibited from teaching religion. This can be particularly difficult for elementary-grade teachers who are often required to teach religious subjects along with other topics.
One of the corps members is fortunate enough to have her Perkins loan forgiven at a rate of 15 percent per year for each year she teaches at an impoverished, inner-city school. Plummer, the assistant director, hopes to secure more loan deferrals for corps members in the future under a new “economic hardship” provision in student loan regulations.
Interestingly, the corps members themselves claim that their part-time graduate studies are the least of their concerns. Each member takes six credit hours per semester, which amounts to about six hours of class per week. The faculty members at Trinity College are understanding and accommodating, prioritizing the corps members’ teaching responsibilities above all else. Sessa, one of the corps members, states that if classwork interferes with their job, it will not be completed.
Parish school administrators hold the program in high regard, speaking just as positively about it as the corps members do. Luray Greenwell, principal at St. Anthony’s in Northeast Washington, praises the corps members’ hard work and expresses her willingness to use the program again in the future. She points out that employing a corps member results in significant cost savings for the parish school compared to hiring a regular lay teacher. While the starting salary for a lay teacher is $17,555, the parish pays less than $15,000 for a corps member when factoring in the stipend, medical insurance, grad-school tuition, and administrative expenses.
Rita Schwartz, an officer of the National Association of Catholic School Teachers, confirms that the union has no issue with the corps as long as it attracts teachers to stay within the archdiocese and does not take job opportunities away from more experienced educators. Greenwell acknowledges that some parents initially felt their children were at a disadvantage having a corps member as their teacher at first. However, she attributes this to the natural reaction of parents to any new and inexperienced teacher.
The Teacher Service Corps concept has piqued the interest of individuals outside the archdiocese as well. Programs inspired by the Washington corps now operate in Chicago, the Philadelphia area, and at Notre Dame. Sister Collins sees the interest of young people in teaching in Catholic schools as a hopeful sign for both the schools and the church.
