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Financial sector's loss could spell gain for teaching

Ohanian Comment: It
is insulting and outrageous to suggest that the
personality to become a hedge fund manipulator
would shift easily to the classroom. But I wish Tristan Rudgard and others well. I hope they
are in it for the long haul and not the two-
year Teacher for America building of
resumes.


By Greg Toppo

Looking for a silver lining in the financial
meltdown? How about this: Your child's next
math teacher could be an absolute whiz.
It's too early to say for sure, but a few
observers believe public schools could be the
beneficiaries of a brainpower shift from the
trading floors of Wall Street and the hedge
funds of Greenwich, Conn., to classrooms
nationwide.

This fall, for instance, New York City's
Teaching Fellows program, which trains career-
changers to work in city schools, saw the
percentage of applicants listing "finance" as
their current job rise to 10%, up from 6% in
2006.

"As I've been trying to think of silver
linings, that's the only one I've come up
with," says Allan Taylor, a Greenwich attorney
who chairs the Connecticut State Board of
Education.

"We've taken some of the strongest mathematical
minds and sent them to figure out computerized
stock trading programs. I'm not an economist,
but in my mind, the country would have been
better off if some of them had gone into K-12
or college teaching."

At Teach For America, the prestigious program
that taps graduates at top universities, the
percentage of trainees who majored in business
has grown to 10% as well. "The turmoil in the
market, I think, has opened up a lot of
possibilities for people in terms of options
they would consider professionally," says
Elissa Clapp, who directs recruitment.

A large shift to teaching is by no means a sure
thing: For one, the meltdown is forcing school
districts to cut costs. But many say it could
end up having an effect similar to that of the
aftermath of 9/11, which drove thousands into
teaching and other service careers. In 2002,
for instance, Teach For America saw
applications nearly triple.

"These big moments — and I think Sept. 11 was
the last big moment — cause people to look for
work that has meaning to them," says Tim Daly
of the New Teacher Project, which recruits
teachers nationwide.

Tristan Rudgard spent 20 years in finance in
London and New York — most recently at Morgan
Stanley. But the economic meltdown — as well as
the sight of his children, ages 6 and 8, going
off to school — changed everything.

"I started to think about what my options
were," he says. "I'm 42 years old and I asked
myself, 'Can I really take another boom and
bust?' "

He trained last summer as a Teaching Fellow and
noticed "at least a half-dozen" Wall Street
acquaintances training with him.

Last month, Rudgard began a daily A-train
commute to Harlem to teach ninth-grade math at
Bread and Roses Integrated Arts High School.
"It's personally very much more rewarding," he
says. "It's both surprised me and enthused me."

And a lot of old Wall Street friends, he says,
are "ringing me up and asking me about details
of the program and the training I took."

Many observers say they're hearing of friends
and colleagues — or the children of friends and
colleagues — who, like Rudgard, are hunting for
teaching jobs.

"We'll get more applicants as a result of
what's going on," says New York City schools
chancellor Joel Klein. "I hope we'll get some
really great people."

Klein, himself a career-changer — he was CEO of
Bertelsmann Inc. before taking the schools job
in 2002 — isn't waiting around for talent to
appear. Last August, he finally filled the
schools' long-vacant chief financial officer
job. Klein's pick: George Raab, a former
managing director at Bear Stearns, the failed
investment bank


— Greg Toppo
USA Today
2008-10-15


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