Welcome! A little about me. I graduated from a college in Washington state a few years ago and went down to Austin to work for a college-access non-profit as an AmeriCorps member for two years where I taught after-school, college prep classes. I loved the job and working with the students there and felt that it sparked an interest in me to pursue a career in education. Hence, I joined Teach For America and went up to Detroit in 2010 to teach in the inner city there. After a promising start, things quickly spiraled out of control (I was switched into three different grade level classes at two different schools in my first two months – none of which were even close to grade levels/subjects I was trained/prepared for and each class I came into was more insanely unmanageable and out of control than the one before it) and I eventually resigned from the organization due to the extremity of the stress and awfulness of the situations I was put in and how they were drastically jeopardizing my mental and physical health (more details about my journey are available on the main page posts).
Now I deliver pizzas and work with a 23-year-old with special needs in Detroit while I’m looking into future options. I’m also no longer miserable, anxious and unbelievably stressed out every day, although I am still incredibly bitter and angry at Teach For America for the situations they threw me into as well as sad, disappointed and discouraged by my experience. I really wanted to teach and to become deeply involved in education and felt this was my path to do so. Apparently, I was wrong about that last part. I started this blog as I began noticing that my situation (while unique in some ways) was not at all unheard of with TFA and I felt a forum for the discussion and sharing of TFA stories would be cathartic and helpful. I’ve since expanded the scope of the blog to include my thoughts on various developments in education as I began noticing a disturbing trend that TFA is front and center in pushing for and based on my admittedly limited experience is not at all a helpful or healthy direction for education in this country to move in…I appreciate and welcome any and all thoughts! 
Hi, my name is Giancarlo and I am strongly considering joining Teach for America. I can see that you strongly recommend not to, but I’m still interested in doing so and would like to know if there is a specific city or state in which these horror stories are not common or completely non-existent. I don’t need to know right away, so take your time in examining the information that you have. Thanks.
Giancarlo,
TFA horror stories are going to occur in every region, primarily as a result of the program’s inadequate training model. However, I would venture a good guess that the most difficult regions (and thereby ones with the most challenging students/schools and ones with the highest percentage of horror stories) are the most impoverished/violent/out of control/de-stabilized urban and rural areas (e.g. Rio Grande Valley, Detroit, parts of LA and NYC, New Orleans, MIssissippi Delta, etc.). I would say that if you are still determined to do TFA despite the many reasons to avoid the program, try to get into a region like Denver or Hartford or somewhere along those lines.
Giancarlo- I did TFA in Phoenix, AZ and had a very positive experience, as did most of the other corps members in my region. It is true that the issues in some regions are certainly more difficult and emotional than others. Good luck, and God bless.
Certainly, plenty of TFA members in all regions have decent or even very good experiences despite the lack of good training they receive. However, there are also plenty of horror stories in every region (or at least most regions) and plenty of in-between cases. For the most part, it really just depends on the school situation one is placed into and you don’t really have any control over that. Best of luck though if you do decide to do the program!