Published: May 1, 2005

Homegrown

Desperate for quality teachers who won't flinch at a challenge, educators in one Florida district are offering full scholarships and guaranteed jobs to a local corps of high schoolers.

Something unusual is being made in Room 266 of Stranahan High School. As you open the squeaky door and poke your head in, nothing seems out of the ordinary at first—it’s a classful of teenagers sitting at grouped-together desks, heads bent low over what looks like an art project.

From beneath his short dreadlocks, Eric Lewis mutters, “I never thought I’d be painting puzzle pieces.” Hunched over the cardboard shapes in his paint-streaked hands, the lanky 10th grader in the too-big T-shirt is gluing them to an asterisk of popsicle sticks and talking, somewhat abashedly, about his goal of being an elementary school teacher.

“I like small people,” he says slightly defensively, as if he knows it sounds unlikely. It is hard to picture the 15-year-old, whose relaxed posture and baggy clothes bespeak a careful cultivation of cool, at the head of a classroom. “You’ve seen that movie, Kindergarten Cop ? That’s me, man, oh yeah.” He smiles. “I want to teach the young kids...