Texas Middle School Students Are Slaves for a Day
Published January 12, 2009 @ 06:30AM PT
The sixth graders at North Richland Middle School in Texas had only been reading about child slavery, both in 19th century America and modern-day Pakistan. That is, until teachers and parent volunteers decided to bring the lesson home by setting up a sweatshop inside the classroom.
For a whole day, students
"...sorted coal and fabrics; others tended machines or sewed tiny beads into strips of cloth."
But the slavery lesson didn't stop with the work. Students were severly berated by teachers and parents for not working fast enough or making mistakes.
"Wrong. You are doing it all wrong," shouted another [parent volunteer], who then scooped freshly sorted gravel back into a pile and instructed all the young workers to 'do it again!'"
While some students left the classroom in tears, others said it brought the reality of what child slaves experience home. All agreed it was not an experience they would easily forget.
What do you think of this experiment? I'm not a mother, but if I was, I would feel uneasy about my child being subjected to life as a child slave, even if it's only for an afternoon. On the other hand, a taste of that experience may make these young people more passionate about working to end child slavery so that other kids don't have to experience that pain and abuse (all day, every day). Parents (or soon-to-be-parents), would you allow your child to participate in this sort of activity?
Additional Note: Clay has written a great article about this issue at the Education blog, where he looks at the issue of "simulated trauma" in the classroom.
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Comments (8)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
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Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.
As long as there were also adults there to help the students understand the experiment, I think it was probably a profound experience for those involved. (I assume parents had to give consent for their kids to participate.) Although not this extreme, I participated in a hunger/homelessness fundraiser in high school where had a "hunger lock-in" where we fasted for 24 hours. I think experiences like this can make social injustice a reality to students who might not otherwise fully understand.
Posted by Heidi Cavanaugh on 01/12/2009 @ 08:08AM PT
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Absolutely. I would want my children to participate in this exercise. It is hard to understand an issue so extreme and so de-humanizing without experiencing a taste of it first hand. I am glad to know there are concerned parents and teachers willing to set up such experiences for children. I would certainly expect a great debrief time following the experience in order to allow the kids to release everything thats going on in their minds and connect it with kids elsewhere who actually suffer.
Posted by Candace Trabulsi on 01/12/2009 @ 09:35AM PT
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As a parent, I would let my daughter participate, with some caveats. I would want to know in advance what was going to happen, roughly, and talk to her about it. I would want assurance from the school that there would be a teacher-observer to make sure things didnt get out of hand. And then I would want to talk to her afterward. If you do all that, I think it's a valuable learning experience. And if it does "traumatize" the child, as it might, I dont think it will be permanent.
Posted by Slim Chance on 01/12/2009 @ 09:50AM PT
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This concerns me. I see real possibilities for this to be more traumatizing than people imagine, for at least some children. The issue is the lack of control. IF a child only participated with their OWN consent (THEY decide for themselves, freely--not the parents or teachers deciding for them) then there is less chance for the experiment to leave lasting scars.
The thing is, if the child is forced to participate, it doesn't matter if the experiment is only for a day. The child has learned that it's possible for the people they depend on to force them to do things that are painful and traumatizing. They have discovered how vulnerable they are, and they could come away with a sense of helplessness. For some children this could have a deeper and more lasting effect than for others.
It reminds me of some of the issues that arise when torture victims process their experience. It's the combination of helplessness, pain, and willful mistreatment by others, that does the damage. The torture does not have to go on for a long time to have effects that can last a lifetime.
Posted by Kye Nelson on 01/12/2009 @ 02:35PM PT
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"For a day"? By definition, students are slaves! They are forced, by LAW, to go to a certain place, do work for certain people, have propaganda shoved down their throats, be constantly berated, treated like a lower life-form, and told it was for their own good! Students are always slaves!
But there's something that can be done about it. They can be empowered by the oldest form of human involvement. There's an idea at another place on the website, which can allow students to actually partake in legal decisions. The idea? Lower the Voting Age to 16. Vote for it here:
www.change.org/ideas/view/lower_the_voting_age_to_16
Posted by Ryan Luchs on 01/12/2009 @ 09:11PM PT
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I think lowering the voting age would not be a good thing at all. Everyone I've ever met from the United States who's under 18 gets all their political knowledge from their parents. Their parents are republicans, so they're republicans. I've had conversations with them about political issues, and they obviously don't have a clue. I'm from a different country, and I understand the issues more. I'm all for respecting kids and recognizing their abilities, but it would be irresponsible to allow people to vote before they even know what's going on in the world.
Posted by Lianne Lavoie on 04/01/2009 @ 07:31AM PT
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I am a homeschooled student, but I was in school for many years. As a student, I feel that this would be a valuable lesson, though shouldn't be taught in the lower grades. Maybe middle school or high school.
Posted by Rose D on 01/17/2009 @ 01:37PM PT
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Many great comments here. Regarding Kye Nelson's point about whether children assented, the standard guidelines is that children must separately assent, in addition to parental consent. There are usually institutional review boards that make sure the situation is non-coercive.
I really liked Ryan Luch's point that school itself is fundamentally coercive. Educators and the general public should work to change this. The book SCHOOLING IN CAPITALIST AMERICA by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis discusses the issue of coerceive schooling and some 20th century experiments where children were not required to attend school.
Posted by Catherine Caldwell-Ha... on 02/01/2009 @ 09:58AM PT
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