Defeating Teach for America at the Apple Store -- a Small Victory

[proud2BlibKansan]

This is a David and Goliath story. I started calling the Apple Story to complain about their new campaign back in July.The promotion went like this:


Do you own an original iPad that you no longer need (pfft, original iPads are so 2010), but have no plans to resell? Apple may have a solution for you: the company has begun promoting a new donation program that will put old iPads to good use through the Teach for America program.
Teach for America takes well-trained teachers—referred to as "corps members"—and places them in one of 39 urban and rural regions across the country that are identified as low-income. The volunteers agree to teach in those areas for two years with the goal of providing a higher-quality education to low-income students. And, according to Teach for America's website, recent research shows that its corps members are "more effective than other teachers, including certified and veteran teachers."


Misinformation about the campaign was plastered all over the Apple website -- lie after lie -- and also at the Teach for America website. I was incensed. I called Apple.

After being passed around on the phone from one corporate office to another, I finally asked Jerry in marketing if Apple knew that Teach for America recruits weren't really teachers -- that their claim of "Teach for America takes well-trained teachers—referred to as "corps members"— was completely false, and that the campaign was deceptive. I said it would be great if Apple were offering donated iPads to real teachers, but the company is misleading donors when it tells them their donation will go to a Teach for America "teacher."

more . . . http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/14/1016734/-Defeating-Teach-for-America-at-the-Apple-Store-a-Small-Victory

[glowing]

1. Why not donate them directly to school districts so the kids can use them?

I would think that would be a much better use of "old" items like iPads and lap tops, etc. Why give them to this TfA that is taking teachers jobs and charging school districts for their services... While probably paying their workforce much less.. and let's face it, a newly graduating college student with needs for a job and for getting their student loans reduced, will sign on thinking that its at least a job for a few years, how bad can it be, I need a job, and I can reduce my enormous student loans... Its also a leg in the door to a professional work experience, rather than just waiting on tables while looking for that "it" job. Can you blame them? I would jump at this opportunity after earning my degree from college to join this program. Its so "feel good" sounding. The reality is that its making professional teachers and their Unions much less stable and often, experienced teachers are being thrown out the door because they are more expensive for a district rather than fresh newbies that have NO negotiating contracts to worry about. Temp work for the youth... Which only makes the students that need to learn left with less quality and more corporate tests... What a cluster fuck these rich assholes keep creating.

[theaocp]

2. That's about it.

I've scrounged around and come up with three PCs from past years for my own room. One has been updated to XP, but the other two are listed as Windows 98. I don't even know if they'll turn on, let alone access the Internet. Our entire school's computer lab is on the fritz, but we are expected to do more computer testing. Meanwhile, TFA needs a fucking handout?

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. We are no longer allowed to bring in our own technology

They also won't give us the wifi password to get on the internet with our own laptops or iPads. They issue us laptops but they are all set up to access the internet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Yep. You pretty much nailed it.

It is just a giant cluster fuck.

[Starry Messenger]

5. k&r

I'm shocked that they removed the display. I will walk down today and see if the one close to me removed theirs too.

[madfloridian]

6. Steve Jobs' wife is on the board of Teach for America.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving-130997

"And, of course, it is very possible that Mr Jobs, who has always preferred to remain private, has donated money anonymously or has drafted a plan to give away his wealth upon his death. (There has long been speculation that an anonymous $150 million donation to the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco may have come from Mr Jobs.) His wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, sits on the boards of Teach for America and the New Schools Venture Fund, among others, and presumably donates money to those organisations, though neither she nor her husband, are listed among its big donors."


Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving-130997&cp

[theaocp]

7. I'm sure she has no influence.

:sarcasm: Oh, and I've been a loyal Mac user since fucking 19*86*, when I was 11. After a while, it always becomes about the fucking money.

[Safetykitten]

8. Totally. That would be, un-Jobbian.

[Honeycombe8]

9. What do Ipads have to do with these "well trained teachers"? I don't get it.

I donate my Ipad (if I had one)....to who? To that new volunteer teacher? I don't get the connection.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. This is upsetting a lot of veteran teachers

Why aren't WE getting iPads? Why only donate them to TFA?