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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Open Letters FROM Reformers I Know. Part 2: Wendy Kopp | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Open Letters FROM Reformers I Know. Part 2: Wendy Kopp | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:


Open Letters FROM Reformers I Know. Part 2: Wendy Kopp

Though she was the last one to receive an open letter from me, Wendy Kopp is the second person to respond.  I’ll probably make some comments about the letter in the ‘comments’ section later on, but for now I want to give her the full forum.
1/23/13
Dear Gary,
From my kids’ perspective, Darth Vader is one of the cooler things I’ve been compared to over the years. Thank you for your letter, and for starting this open letter series. I love the spirit. You raise a lot of important issues and I’ll get to as many of them as I can. I want to start by addressing your biggest concern: that Teach For America lacks ideological diversity, or at least fails to encourage and embrace it.
Active and vocal alumni like you are proof that there’s no shortage of diverse opinion within the Teach For America community. But you’re right that we haven’t done enough to highlight ideological diversity and reach out to alumni who feel that their opinions aren’t welcome. Part of the explanation is that before we embraced online