A major educational challenge confronts the country. Public school systems in every major city are flooded today with the flotsam of a vast new migrationfrom rural areas to urban centers. Many of these migrants. uneducated. even illiterate and accustomed to agricultural employment. are wholly unequipped for participation in an industrial economy. and often. In consequence. they find themselves crowded into decaying neighborhoods. unemployed. exploited and desperate. Their children. often. are in a real sense disinherited--deprived of any cultural stimulation or any incentive to learn. It is for these children that the schools must today undertake a special taska task analogous to but different from the task accomplished by the public schools at the turn of the century in making the melting pot a reality for the children of the migrants from Europe. "For centuries." the report of the Advisory Council observes. "schools have dealt almost wholly with students who have valued learning and have come to school in search of it. Among the children with whom the Teacher Corps works. the first task is not so much to teach them as to reach them. in order to persuade them that they can learnand that learning can be useful. interesting and rewarding." The Teacher Corps recruits idealistic and committed young college graduates who want to do this specialized and difficult type of teaching. and it trains them for the task in participating universities and in the public schools of disadvantaged neighborhoods which have asked for their help. During the past school year. some 1200 Corps members have served in 275 schools in 111 school districts In 29 states. serving in each case at the invitation of a local school system.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization that migrants from rural areas are uneducated, illiterate, and unequipped for an industrial economy.