It is a well established fact that white teachers are a dominating majority in America. This is all very well, but is the lack of colored teachers due to racism or simply a lack of interest in the profession?
There has been a trend where as the student body continues to rise, the colored teacher population continues to decline. This may not seem terribly problematic at the moment, but it takes something out of education. America is a multi-cultural place and children need exposure to new cultures. As well, students of different races and religions should have the chance to learn with teachers of various races.
The truth is, people of color have more trouble becoming teachers. The privileged white society tends to dominate the classrooms with their own ideas and procedures. These include such things as admitting fewer students of color to college because the admissions committee favors whites. People with unusual names ( commonly racial minorities) have less chances of success in school. A study on this saw teachers marking papers with names of various students. The students with normal names fared much better than the ones with unusual ones. White teacher have a significant impact on whether other races succeed or fail in school. The sad part is that of all migrants to the country, 40-50% never finish highschool.
To effectively teach students of different races and cultures requires creativity, adaptability, and of course no racism on behalf of the teacher. One of the most successful approaches is creating lessons that incorporate unique cultures into the daily lessons. If you have someone from Pakistan in your class, ask them to talk about their life there, and the difference in their new country. Ask them about their schooling and see if you can come up with something that will be a little bit more suitable for them. And, if you typically study a story about racism against a Chinese person, perhaps you could find something different if you have a Chinese student in your class- these types of things make students very uncomfortable.
The goal of education is to teach children and to develop a desire for lifelong learning (among other things). This cannot possibly be achieved if the student is unhappy, uncomfortable, or confused. Teachers must do everything they can to make sure each and every student has the best possible education, and must individualize the lessons as much as possible for each unique individual.