As I have shared with you before, I am teaching a 20th Century World History & Literature course in our local homeschool cooperative. When I offered to teach the class I knew it would be a significant undertaking. I would be responsible to keep up (better yet, keep ahead) of all the readings my students were pushing through. In addition to that, I recognized this period of time would introduce unprecedented sufferings and tragedies, including two devastating world wars, nuclear warfare, the Holocaust, as well as Genocides in Europe, Asia and Africa, mass starvation in China and the USSR, drug wars, and the horrors of child labor and human trafficking.
This past week was our second class reading through the somewhat controversial text, Labor’s Untold Story. Often referred to as the “bible” of the labor movement, this book was written from a decidedly pro-union stance, which is a point of view many of my students are not at all familiar with addressing.
Last week I heard all of my students complaining about the difficulty of this particular read. “Ms. Heather, this book is soooooo hard!” they asserted. “Do we have to read the WHOLE book?!” they asked.
So, for Monday’s class I brought in a pack of kooky halloween glasses and passed them out to each student. I told them the point of the glasses was to help remind them sometimes we must view the world from a different, unexpected perspective. Most specifically, not our own 21st century, middle class perspective.
I reminded them to look beyond their own lives when evaluating the issues outlined in the text. I read quotes from the book about what some of the immigrants in the early 1900’s experienced as they tried to make a living for their family. I wanted them to SEE that given the same environment, under the same circumstances, with the same concerns for family and personal well-being, they too may have joined the union forces or strongly advocated the fight for the “survival of living wages and the dignity of working people.”
And then I asked them to be honest. If they had been a miner…if their wives and children had worked in the textile factories…would they have embraced the labor movement of the time (led by socialists) as a means to protect their children, their family and themselves?
These are hard questions. These are THINKING questions.
I want my students to THINK!
Monday’s assignment was to select a passage from the text that spoke to them and expand on it – most specifically, tell why it affected them and how they felt about it personally. Most of the students really grappled with the child labor movement. I was impressed at the thought that went into their short presentations and I was proud of their summations.
They opened their minds to a different scenario than what they could possibly comprehend in their own lives.
They considered situations that were outside of their personal experiences that they know and understand.
They embraced the fullness of the suffering and delivered heart-felt responses.
I was proud.
I am proud.
How have your children/student’s studies challenged their point of views? What are their responses? What kind of conversations does this stir around the dinner table?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Since 2001, Heather Sanders has worked from home in the following industries: web design and development, branding and consulting, web graphics and social media promotion, and copyediting and freelance blogging. Wanna start a blog? Looking for someone to copyedit or proof your posts? Need some social media graphics? Contact Heather today!