Television, radio, magazine, and newspaper advertisements exhorting young people to “Reach for the Power--Teach’’ have gotten 55,000 potential teachers to reach for their telephones since the ad campaign began in April, according to Recruiting Young Teachers Inc. and the Advertising Council, the campaign’s co-sponsors.
About 50,000 brochures on teaching as a profession have been sent to those responding to the ads.
“There seems to be an enormous amount of interest in the teaching profession right now,’' said David C. Haselkorn, education assistant to David Rockefeller Jr., chairman of the board of RYT Response to the campaign has been much heavier than expected, he said.
The brochures include a postcard that may sent to RYT for additional information; more than 6,000 already have been returned. About 35 percent of the respondents are members of minority groups, Mr. Haselkorn said, adding that further demographic analysis of respondents is in progress.
The recruitment group plans to share the names of callers with state and other agencies that recruit and train teachers. The organization hopes that school administrators and teachers in each state will contact the young people to offer information and advice.
The ads will probably continue until next April, Mr. Haselkorn said. About $13-million worth of advertising time and space has been donated to the campaign. Thus far, RYT has spent $400,000 on production of the ads and plans to raise additional funds to cover printing, telephone and computer costs.
Educators can obtain a list of callers by writing to Recruiting Young Teachers Inc., 20 Nassau St., Princeton, N.J. 08542-4509. --KG
