The School of Hard Knocks | Teaching Tolerance

The recession is just part of the problem. Long-term demographic shifts are altering the education landscape. The Southern Education Foundation reported last month that the South has become the first region of the country where more than half the public school students are poor and more than half are African American, Latino, Asian or Native American. That change is not caused by white flight, but by an influx of Latinos and other ethnic groups.

For a teacher, this news translates into a series of quiet struggles. It can mean forgiving a student who–because his home is now a pressure-cooker—has begun acting out. It can mean sticking up for the girl has become distracted and inattentive in class. It can mean getting a kid home each day because his parents can’t.

via The School of Hard Knocks | Teaching Tolerance.