One Day, All Children....

"There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo.


The power of an idea is truly the biggest force for change. Such an idea occurred to Wendy Kopp, an undergraduate student in Princeton University. In the Spring of 1989, Wendy proposed the creation of a national teaching corps that puts the brightest graduates and young professionals in the United States and get them to teach in low-income public schools across the country.


The goal is to leverage the altruism of the best and the brightest, putting them to work on the toughest jobs in the toughest neighborhoods of the country—and, in the process, tackle the problem of education inequity as well as help create a new generation of leaders, imbued with the spirit of sacrifice.


Over the next 19 years, Wendy has served as the CEO and has been tremendously successful in creating an exemplary organization called Teach For America (TFA). She has maneuvered the organization through extremely difficult times and has learnt a lot along the way, while perfecting the art of running an efficacious non-profit. This has earned her a lot of awards and recognition.


By 2007, TFA was recruiting around 3500 leaders from an application pool of 45000 applicants. Their sucess was also being duplicated in United Kingdom by a similar program called Teach First. At the same time, a group of leaders working for education reform in India were seeking innovation solutions for our problems in education. Guided by Shaheen Mistry, CEO of Akanksha Foundation this group met Wendy and were inspired to bring the Teach For program to India.


Hence in 2007, realizing that the TFA model can be extended to other countries outside of the United States, an organization called Teach For All was formed to bring this idea and its successes to different parts of the world. In a short time, the Teach For programs are being implemented in 10 countries in the world from Lebanon to Australia.


Thanks to the vision and tenacity of leaders like Wendy and Shaheen, a new force of youth leaders are reaching out to millions of children around the world and bringing about a real change in their lives.


One day ALL children will attain an excellent education. This is the true power of 'just' another idea...


PS:

If you get a chance read Wendy Kopp's book One Day All Children - The unlikely triump of Teach For America and what I learnt along the way. She describes the tumultous journey through the first 10 years of the TFA program. It is an inspirational read!