Halee Sage was a teacher with the organization Teach for America for 3 years. Teach for America is an organization that sends teachers to under-performing or otherwise not as good schools. Halee taught in Baltimore from 1991 to 1993. She told us about her problems and set backs with the school and how it affected her teaching. There were two other fifth grade teachers in the school, but they decided that one would teach math and the other would teach English. Meaning that their homerooms would have mostly math for the entire day, and the other would have mostly English. On the days that they did switch, she would only hear about it moments before. She was also the only teacher to offer recess. Since there was no recess built into the day, she would take it out of her class time and bring them to the park. She taught science and health, and would spend her time dividing between the two. The classroom she taught in was tiny and kids were bumping into each other with their chairs all the time. Even though she tried to take them out for recess as much as possible, she had trouble finding time for it while trying to jam pack the schedule full of other things to make up for the lack of curriculum. What I never knew was how unorganized a curriculum could be and still pass the federal guidelines. I always thought that they’re were federally mandated classes that each student had to take every year, but I never realized that they could still be learning this, and never switch classes. They would learn all their math curriculum for the week in one full day of math. There were no breaks except for lunch, no recess (which I also though was required for lower school classes). These teachers as well have obviously given up on having a successful equal class. They seemed to have just given up on the kids, teaching what was required and doing it in as little time as possible, and they were never reprimanded for it. There are no punishments for teachers who fail to inspire their students, or to help them go above and beyond, as long as they teach the required material. They don’t put out a positive “I want to be here” vibe, and in my experience this will make the students follow suit.