In 2000 I was living with my parents in northeast Missouri. Having graduated from Harding University, and preparing to move to Brazil to begin mission work, I learned that the public school in Milan, Missouri needed help. Premium Standard Farms had opened a facility near the town only a few years before, and the Hispanic population in this traditionally white community had grown dramatically. The Latinos were coming in from Mexico, central America as well as elsewhere in the United States to work at the factory hog farm. As a result, the small town had been seemingly overrun by Spanish-speaking folk, and the school system was struggling to deal with their children. SinceI was not otherwise committed at the time, needed hands-on teaching experience for my future work teaching English in Brazil and wanted to help out in a worthy cause, I volunteered to work as a teacher's assistant in the Milan school's ESL program.
A few weeks ago Allen Andersen brought to my attention the similar situation of his hometown, Dorchester, Nebraska. Really, it involves Dorchester's neighbor Crete as well. Both have received a major influx of immigrants over the past two decades, and from the looks of it not everyone is thrilled about it. Check out the blog version of the local Dorchester newspaper and what it has to say here.
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