1.  Child Labor Curriculum, 5-week course for high school sophomores.

Nancy Gremminger and Rita Jordan, Ridely High School, Folsom, Pennsylvania.
Subject: All sophomore students at a high school participate in a module on child1 labor

    Nancy and Rita teach social studies and "global perspectives" at Ridley High School in Folsom, Pa.. The high school sophomores who take the social studies classes come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and so getting all involved in the same class is, to say the least, a challenge.
Their child1 labor curriculum, a 5-week course that all sophomores must take, however, got students excited. The teachers -- Nancy, Rita, Deena Cellini, Bob Kuhn, Barbara Capaldi -- introduce students to the topic, and to opposing viewpoints. They start by appealing to the students' self-interest. "Any of you work?" Of course, many students do. After a discussion of local labor laws that apply to them, the students branch out to discuss work laws -- and realities -- in other countries. Ultimately, the students meet in a "model United Nations conference" where, following Roberts Rules of Order, they debate the issue.
    In the model UN conference, students in groups represent different countries or geographic regions. They caucus, negotiate, conduct research using primary and secondary sources, as well as electronic media (Info Trac, Dialog On-Line, Multimedia CD-ROM, the Internet.)
    Not “Advocacy” Teachaing: Nancy and her team teachers strive to introduce students to the full range of debate over child1 labor -- and to stay away from advocating one approach or another.
    Curriculum materials: Student worksheets include guidelines for analyzing articles about child1 labor; guidelines for structuring a small speech/presentation; guidelines for conflict resolution; as well as some guidelines about how to structure a resolution based on a "conference" on water conservation; as well as guidelines for structuring discussions on trade in human organs for transplant (a fascinating, if controversial, subject). Curriculum materials also include guidelines for debriefing students after the model UN conference.
    The Ridley curriculum makes extensive use of "real world" background materials: from Scholastic's issue of "Update," which focuses on globalization, to recent news articles. Nancy said she had a hard time finding up-to-date material at first, but much more has been printed on the subject in the last couple of years. She and the other teachers spend quite a bit of time gathering and refining their curriculum materials.

Challenges: To make sure students of all skill levels are drawn in. Finding up-to-date articles, books and other information about the topic (the situation has improved from eight years ago when Nancy began teaching about child1 labor, and found almost no useful material.) At first, the social studies department in the school district was a stuffy, and almost entirely male, backwater, so Nancy and the others had to overcome some resistance when they proposed a curriculum that did not rely on the traditional books and other materials.

Results: Students have become so interested in the topic that their parents heard about it -- and spread the word to the school administration, which has extended more support to the teachers. The teachers are constantly changing and updating the curriculum to incorporate new news items, legislation, and other topics. The teachers are also building a list of companies that are "kid-friendly."
(Date of original report: 1997)

2.  Student-Produced Video on Child Labor Photojournalism.

Tieny Phan, Karen Nguyen, Kristen Talmadge, Sierramont Middle School, San Jose, California.

Subject: Students choose an independent research project, learn how to use school video equipment in the process of producing a video.
Tieny, Karen and Kristen, students (until graduation 1997) at Sierramont Middle School in San Jose, California, produced a 10-minute video about Lewis Hine, a photographer who documented children and their working conditions in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. At the workshop, Tieny read a short statement about the video, and screened the video.
    Going into the project, none of the three knew what she was getting into. "We didn't even know that child1 labor existed," Tieny said.
    It's a gripping video -- and extremely impressive considering the effort and learning that went into its production. It demonstrates a few useful pointers: use of technology; motivation; compelling and appropriate subject matter.

Motivation: The three girls gave up nearly all their free time for nearly six months to produce it. Why? The subject, which they chose from a list presented by a teacher, moved them. Also, they were producing this project to meet a specific challenge: producing a project for the school district's "history day" competition, which might then qualify for statewide and national history day competitions.

Use of Technology: They were the first users of their school's video equipment. And so on top of doing the research and writing the script, they had to teach themselves to use the equipment.

Compelling and Appropriate Subject Matter: Lewis Hine's photographs, life story, and focus on child1 labor all lent themselves well to a video. They are graphically interesting, dramatic, and heart-rending. But just having quality elements doesn't guarantee a quality outcome; the girls did an excellent job of using their material to great effect.
(Date of Original report: 1997)

UPDATE: These student video-makers are now in high school. But they would be happy to have other students see their work. To order the video, and a teacher’s guide for interpreting it and staying current on the issue, contact sarahbach@aol.com.
 

3.  Discussion on Child Labor in Global Studies Course.

Bill Bigelow, Franklin High School, Portland, Oregon.
Subject: Class discussion on globalization and inequality uses a visual aid – a soccer ball – and magazine articles, poem, etc. to spark ideas
    Bill Bigelow, a teacher at Franklin High School in Portland, Oregon, wanted to teach his students about global capitalism. He wanted to get them started thinking about the so-called “race to the bottom": companies moving production from places where the factors of production (wages, etc.) are high to where they are lower.
    One day, he put a soccer ball on a table and asked students to describe it. Their first descriptions were plain and dull. Then the class talked about where the ball was from (Pakistan), and whether perhaps it had been made by children. He read to them a poem by Bertolt Brecht ("A Worker Reads History"), which asks readers to look beyond the obvious, the glittery and famous, and ask about the people (the poor and downtrodden) behind life's surfaces. The students asked new questions, and what they wrote became more creative and passionate.
    He introduced the class to Sydney Schanberg's June 1996 Life magazine article, "Six Cents an Hour." The story tells about children who are paid pennies per hour in Pakistan to make soccer balls. High school kids in the United States (and Europe) buy the balls and then play with them with little thought for how they were produced. A Nike spokeswoman quoted in the article says that Pakistan's child1 labor is an "ages-old practice....and the process of change is going to take time. " Bill then quoted Max White, an activist with the "Justice. Do It NIKE!" coalition, who had told the global studies class: "Nike knew exactly what it was doing when it went to Pakistan. That's why they located there. They went because they knew child1 labor was an "ages-old practice.""
    Although Bill had planned the discussion of economic inequality, the focus on the soccer ball was a spur of the moment idea. His classroom was right next to the gym, and he wanted to see where the school's soccer balls come from. Concerned that students learn not only about child1 labor but also about broader economic trends, Bill then began helping students learn about the global "race to the bottom."

Method: A "game" whereby the teacher represented "capital" and students represented countries seeking to attract capital by lowering labor prices, etc.

Results: Bill was pleased to have spurred a lively discussion. He worried, however, that some students would begin thinking that people who have been exploited by the "race to the bottom" are all victims -- and are powerless to change their own lives. He wondered whether, after class, his students more or less hopeful about change; and more or less hopeful about the fate of humanity. Did they feel hopeless, or like they themselves could make a difference in the world? Did they realize that in the United States, too, some workers are severely exploited?

For further discussion of the benefits & drawbacks of this classroom exercise, refer to Bill's 1997 "Rethinking Schools" essay. http://www.rethinkingschools.org//Archives/11_04/swetm.htm
(Date of original report: 1997)

UPDATE: Fewer children are working in the Sialkot, Pakistan, soccer ball industry and more are going to school in a program sponsored by the International Labor Organization. The contractor that produces soccer balls for Nike is part of the industry’s effort to get children out of exploitative work and into school. Reports differ on the extent to which this effort is succeeding in keeping children in schools.
    Bill and a co-author are working on a book about globalization, scheduled to be available from Rethinking Schools in Spring 2001.

4.  Class Project on International Law Convinced School Board Not To Buy Child-Made Soccer Balls.

Mark Elinson, Monroe High School, North Hills, California.
Subject: A class project in international law evolved into an exercise in parliamentary procedure and political power - with child-made soccer balls at the center of debate. Students lobbied the Los Angeles Board of Education to ban all purchases of soccer balls made in Pakistan and other countries believed to use child1 labor.
    Mark Elinson, a teacher at Monroe High School in North Hills, California, wanted his senior students to become passionate on issues. He tried teaching them about human rights abuses in other countries, but the subject seemed too far away to excite them. Searching for a subject that would move them, he saw the 60 Minutes report about Craig Kielburger, a then-12-year-old Canadian activist working against child1 labor. Mark set up an assignment around the child1 labor issue, which incorporated a discussion of the United Nations, student contacts with offices of public officials (e.g. Sen. Harkin's office). The students also read Sydney Schanberg's "6 Cents a Day" article, from LIFE magazine in 1996. The students formed a group called "SAKE," or Students Against Kid Exploitation.
    The students contacted the Foul Ball campaign, which is trying to get young people to boycott soccer balls made by children. The soccer ball issue became especially real to the students when a few who were members of the championship girls soccer team checked the balls they used. The balls were all stamped "Made in Pakistan."
    Mark had been collecting materials over the summer, and hoped the project on child1 labor would hold the students through a three-week project. The students found the subject so interesting that the project ballooned. Eventually, the classmates convinced the Board of Education to make the soccer ball purchase ban.
    Along the way, the students learned some extra lessons in politics. Some Middle Eastern and Islamic groups complained about the initial focus on Pakistan, and the students responded by making their appeals more general.  Another education board member criticized them for being mean-spirited, a charge that the students denied.
    The students child1 labor project was written up in a Los Angeles Times article (Duke Helfand, "Students Press L.A. Supervisors to Join Fight Against Child Labor," Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1997.) . All in all, Mark was extremely pleased with the way the child1 labor subject had won the students' attention, and turned them into activists.
    Discussion: Some teachers feel uncomfortable, or their districts do not permit, teaching students to become activists. For Mark, the students' activism was the whole point. "I WANTED them to become activists," he said.
    And he wanted his students to make sharp moral judgments. At another point in the discussion, he said: "It's hard to teach in a moral vacuum."
(Date of original report: July 1997. )

UPDATE: In later years, Elinson’s students were still interested in child1 labor, but not as enthusiastic about the soccer ball issue. At least some students thought the school district’s soccer ball purchases were “last year’s” issue. Other student projects included interviewing a diplomat, from the Mexican Consulate in L.A., about child1 labor in Mexico.

5.  Fund-raiser for Free the Children, student-organized activist group.

Gary Firenzi, Rolling Hills Middle School, Los Gatos, California.
Subject: Students raise money for non-profit group (Free The Children) that was started by children to help children.
    Gary Firenzi is "activities" teacher at Rolling Hills Middle School, in Los Gatos, California. He teaches a class in leadership, and organizes activities for the student council. He got the idea of helping students take some action on child1 labor after seeing a story about Craig Kielburger. After a delay of about a year, 10 students became involved in supporting Free The Children, a non-profit group that he started to help child1 laborers (and later, to build youth leadership). The Los Gatos students held a marathon dance as a fundraiser, and succeeded in raising $1,200. The purpose of the fund-raiser was both to make money and inform people about the problem.
    The local newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News, ran a photo of students dancing -- they danced non-stop for 6 hours. Craig got wind of the fundraiser, and came up for a visit, which was even more thrilling for the students. The FTC chapter also raised money through a car wash, and by selling tee shirts.
    Discussion: The school is in a fairly affluent area, and so children have money to spend. It's not clear if a fundraiser would be as successful in another community.
    Gary had worried that his district would criticize him for setting up a fund-raiser for a cause. No one stopped him, the students were enthusiastic, and Gary said, "I just went ahead and did it."
(Date of original report: 1997)

6.  Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Sixth Grade Unit on Child Labor

“A major unit is the study of child1 labor in the United States. Students see a film on Lewis Hine, which focuses on his work for the National Child Labor Committee. They read about Hine and child1 labor and examine many of his photographs. Children are placed in task forces and look at previously unseen photographs by Hine. They observe and analyze the working environment of the children with the use of a set of guiding criteria: space allotted for work, lighting, safety conditions, ages of the children, dress of the children. Each task force makes recommendations for child1 labor laws based upon their conclusions. All of the groups come together and share the labor standards that they have developed. As a class, they discuss, defend and support their positions citing evidence from the photographs. Each person then votes his or her beliefs so that the class creates its standards. The categories for the standards include: minimum age for particular jobs, minimum wage, maximum hours for particular jobs, working conditions (lighting, ventilation, crowding, protective clothing), and work schedules. The standards of all three sixth grade classes are compared. The next phase of the child1 labor study involves research and the writing of a persuasive essay. Each student pretends to be either a concerned citizen who has been reading exposes by muckraking journalists or has been seeing photographs by investigators like Lewis Hine, or else pretends to be an investigator who has observed the appalling conditions firsthand. The assignment is to write to one of the two senators from New York in 1911 describing the horrible situation of America's children and persuading him to pass child1 labor laws following their recommendations. Children find out who the senators were at that time and, following the form for the formal letter in 1911 and the persuasive essay today, write their letters which are then shared with members of the class.

“Another project celebrates the sacrifices made by this nation's children. Students design Child Labor Commemorative Stamps, showing children in four different occupations (e.g., factory work, street trades, mining, farming, doing piecework at home). The drawing of the stamps is preceded by a discussion of the concept of the commemorative stamp, and examples are shown.”
http://www.ecfs.org/ethicalCulture/socialStudies/ECSocialStudies6.html

7.  Model United Nations, in which students study several issues, such as child1 labor; formulate a negotiate a treaty or international agreement (high school)

"The California International Studies Project (CISP) and Bay Area Global Education Project (BAGEP) recently completed a third successful year administering the Contemporary World History Project (CWHP). Supported by grants from the Industrial Bank of Japan Foundation, by state CISP funding, and individual donations, the project involves ninth and tenth grade students of world history from a number of Bay Area and Central Valley high schools in a year-long project that culminates in a diplomatic negotiation simulation via the Internet. Etc." (1999)  World Affairs Council of Northern California

http://www.wacsf.org/education/index.html#bagep

8.  "Teaching Activism Against Abusive, Exploitative Child Labor" – The Kids Campaign: A School for Iqbal.

Eighth-graders at Broad Meadows Middle School (50 Calvin Road) in Quincy, Mass. (02169 USA, tel. 617-984-8723), began in1995 raising money via a web site to build a school in Pakistan, and have followed up with many other activities. They began their activities after hearing of the murder in Pakistan of a child1 laborer who had escaped bonded labor. The child1, Iqbal Masih, had become an international activist against child1 labor.

Activities include: website building; money raising; letter writing; public speaking; petition building; and more.

Teacher Ron Adams had been “teaching activism.” In 1994, Iqbal Masih, a former bonded child1 laborer who had left his occupation (rug knotting) to become an anti-child labor campaigner. Iqbal visited the United States to accept the Reebok Human Rights Award. While in Massachusetts, he said he wanted to visit a school, and especially a school of student activists, and so he visited Broad Meadows. In 1995, Iqbal was shot to death in Pakistan. Broad Meadows students decided that they should do something to carry on his work. So they decided to build a school. Adams didn’t think they could, but decided he would help them as much as he could. The students built a web site (http://www.mirrorimage.com/iqbal), and began raising money to build the school.

Eventually the school was built in the town of Kasur, near Karachi, where many children work in the textile and leather industries. (Although the Broad Meadows students initially hoped to build the school in Iqbal’s home village, the non-government organization that the students chose to contract to build the school told them that the political situation, and religious tensions between the majority Muslims and the minority Christians such as Iqbal’s family, in Iqbal’s home village was too volatile to build a school in his memory there immediately.)

Adams recommends that teachers who wish to “teach activism” by using “curriculum entry points” such as: literature such as Lyddie (about a young American textile worker) and Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist; Susan Kuklin’s recent book about Iqbal Masih; David Parker’s book of photographs (with text for middle school students), Stolen Dream: economics (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s 1997 issue of The Ledger, page 1, says, “In teaching international economics to American students in grades K-12, is it legitimate, or perhaps even necessary, to go beyond the study of such basic economic concepts as ‘comparative advantage’ and examine these topics in the context of more complex issues, such as human rights?”

Adams suggests that planning and carrying out action can occur after school. He suggests: a) establish a goal (student-run meetings, but advisor is essential); b) link with groups already working on the issue (activists of any age burn out if isolate); c) brainstorm actions, strategize and do it; d) use the personal touch by hand-writing all letters, especially thank you notes to donors; e) practice public speaking, so that students are prepared for bouquets and brickbats; f) meet at a consistent time and place; g) inform and invite administrators and in other ways build support among them; h) let everyone’s voice be heard and avoid creating superstars; i)determine every action of the campaign with a student vote; j)document each meeting, by rotating a notekeeper on the computer; k) send meeting minutes to all (lack of communication kills a campaign); l) begin each meeting by asking if anyone wants to say anything; and m) close each meeting with clear expectations about what’s next. “Make fun and laughter part of every meeting…remember it feels good doing good.”

Adams recommends being “aggressive” with the media. “Inform and invite them when it makes sense.” Prepare materials, carefully and completely, for reporters. That said, Adams cautions, “The campaign is about helping poor, exploited children to help themselves; The campaign is not about how much money and media we have.” Students, now in Internet contact with people around the world, want to do good. They also learn that changing the world is hard work. When students realized that millions of children around the world can’t go to school, they appreciated their own school a lot more.

Adams also cautions that it’s important to use explicit terms: Broad Meadows students object to abusive, exploitative child1 labor, not to all work. Using the vague term “child1 labor” alone confuses people, because they don’t know how or whether you are making a distinction between harmless, or even beneficial work or family chores, and harmful work.

Students from the Broad Meadows Middle School have won many awards, including: Reebok’s Youth-in-Action Human Rights Award; National Geographic’s Kids Did It! Award; Giraffe Award; the Peace Corps' "Global Education 2000" award; the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights’ 1997 Human Rights Awards; National Consumers League’s Trumpeter Award; Team Harmony Global Activism Award; National Education Association Peace and Global Understanding Award; Union of American Hebrew Congregations Bearer of Light Award; Secretary of Labor’s Award.

Questions for Ron Adams or Broad Meadows students can be emailed to: endchlabor@AOL.com
One article quoting a student activist, Elizabeth Bloomer, was: New Designs for Youth Development, Vo. 14, No. 3, 1998, (p. 29).

9.  After-school discussion and activities, such as building a board game about child1 labor, Global Kids.

The Labor Project: "youth-led research and advocacy against unfair labor practices around the world."

"Global Kids is an educational organization dedicated to preparing urban youth to become community leaders and global citizens." New York City program conducts "weekly interactive workshops, enrichment activities, and tutoring for students, and professional development for educators, designed to enliven the social studies curriculum and motivate students to stay in school and learn new skills." Involving more than 500 students per week. Part of Project Achieve, "a collaborative effort of Global Kids, three public schools, the N.Y. City Board of Education, and United Way of New York City. Email: globalkids@igc.apc.org.

http://www.globalkidsinc.org/

10.  Free The Children activities -- many activities to raise money for children, develop youth leadership, help child1 laborers (grade school through college). Started by a then-12-year-old Canadian student, Craig Keilburger, who was stunned to read of the death of a 12-year-old former child1 laborer, Iqbal Masih. Craig later traveled internationally to investigate child1 labor himself. He has written a book ("Free the Children," translated into several languages, information available on FTC website) about his travels, and his conclusions about the best ways to help child1 laborers. FTC now conducts leadership training, raises money for programs to help children, and has other activities. Chapters in schools all over the world.

www.freethechildren.org

11.  "Youth March in S.F. Over Plight of Child Soldiers -- Human Rights Watch Sponsors Today's Event", Julie N. Lynem, San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 2000

(http://www.sfgate.com/cgo-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/03/25/MN87566.DTL

12.  Students from Thurgood Marshall Academic High School in San Francisco, California"interviewed" a professor, Harley Shaiken of the University of California at Berkeley, online.

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/EdModule/labor/shaiken-chat1.html

13.  The Concerned for Working Children, an NGO in India, has been collaborating with working children to improve the local schools so that they will be easier to use and more attractive for working children. Children also helped compile a list of hazards in several occupations, and the lists have been published as an illustrated children’s book.

More information about The Concerned for Working Children is on the website http://www.workingchild.org, which includes a report about CWC’s education work http://www.workingchild.org/htm/whatsnew.htm.

Damodar Acharya ofCWC was an Ashoka Fellow in 1997.
http://www.ashoka.org/venture/regions/asia/india/acharya_profile.html

An article about CWC published in Changemakers.net Journal, the Ashoka online magazine: http://www.changemakers.net/journal/99november/gupta.cfm