While Lucille Clifton penned this poem to convey her everyday struggles as a non-White woman,1 the sentiment seems apt for a discussion of poverty. Like racism, poverty creates daily obstacles that call on the strength and per-severance of those who endure it. The economic recession continues to have a ripple effect on much of the country, despite improvements for some. Previous downturns in the stock market, falling home prices, high unemploy-ment rates, and shrinking school budgets left much of the country reeling economically. Undoubtedly, these occurrences have an influence on the nation’s schools and students. Recent census data indicate that more than 1 in 5 of children below the age of 18 live in poverty, putting the number at close to 16 million (Addy & Wight, 2012).

g and other displays of displeasure. Either expression is likely co receive negative sanction in the classroom setting. Researcher Harry Morgan documents in a 1990 study what most of us who have worked with African-American children have learned intuitively: that African-American children, more than white, and boys more than girls, initiate interac-tions with peers in the classroom in performing assigned tasks. Morgan concludes that a classroom that allows for greater movement and interact

white teachers, who are all afraid of black kids. It is this last group that, according to my young informant, consistently has the most difficulty with teaching and whose students have the most difficulty with learning. I would like to suggest that some of the problems may cer-tai

n any discussion of education and culture, it is important to remember that children are individuals and cannot be made to fit into any preconceived mold of how they are "supposed" to act. The question is not necessarily how to cre-ate the perfect "culturally matched" learning situation for each ethnic group, but rather how to recognize when there is a problem for a particular child and how to seek its cause in the most broadly conceived fashion.