It was said to me recently the only way to really bust out of poverty in small town America is by joining the military or becoming a stripper, options not for everybody nor recommended for many.
That comment may have been flippant but made a point. For some, the land of opportunity is a series of closed doors. Wendy Kopp, CEO and founder of Teach for America believes the key is education.
For the past 20 years, Kopp has been recruiting elite college graduates to work as teachers in low-income communities, that is places so poor that local schools can't cope and churn out students where F, not an A, is the most common grade.
And so the cycle continues.
According to the Miss Teen USA pageant (stay with me on this one), one fifth of American students can't locate the US on a map. Watch this video as Miss Teen South Carolina provides us with her insight.
It's funny but it's not a joke. And this is a kid who you would imagine did attend a decent school. Think of those without her headstart.
"In our high poverty communities only half of our kids are attaining high school degrees," Kopp told me in New York last week.
"Without a high school degree there is no future. But we can solve this problem."
Teach For America has been successful in luring college graduates from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (among several top universities) away from careers on Wall Street to instead invest two years of comparatively low pay in teaching disadvantaged children.
"When kids facing the challenges of poverty are given the chances they deserve, they excel," said Kopp. "The [Teach For America] vision is that one day all kids in America will have the chance to attain an excellent education."
Kopp said she's witnessed real change during her organisation's existence when problems are tackled aggressively.
"Incremental change does not change lives," she said. "We need transformational change.
"Fifteen years ago we would not have been able to take you to one school in New York City facing challenges of poverty [that was still] putting kids in a trajectory where they would have the same educational outcomes as kids on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
"Today, we can show you 40. They are changing the trajectory of kids."
According to Kopp, each year, about 47,000 graduates from around the country apply to join the organization to fill the roughly 8000 positions open across the US.
"Graduates are doing this because they want to make a difference and they view this as our generation's civil rights issue," says Kopp.
"They are not doing it for money. They clearly could make a lot more money in other pursuits."
Teach For America has spun off a sister organization Teach For All that has similar global aims. And before you get too comfortable, an Australian organisation Teach For Australia, shares concerns about disadvantaged schools in our own country.
"Just two years channeling your energy in this direction can make a lifetime of difference for kids," said Kopp.
With boot camps and strip clubs not required. Nor tricky questions for Miss Teen South Carolina.
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