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Mission: Making educational curricula connections


1913 - The Exploitation of Child Workers
(Categories of child labor | Booklist: Children Working in America)

      Performance Assessment: Each student will assume the role of a child working in the early 1900s. Students will take notes as they research factual information about the time related to their employment. Each student will create an artifact packet containing primary source documents about a selected theme related to his working. He will apply his content knowledge to original products that highlight 1st person writing activities using skills in descriptive, persuasive, and informational writing.


President Wilson surrounded by child laborers.
"Mr. President, we don't want anything.
We just want to grow up."
Life Magazine - June 19, 1913
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A Child's Creed

I believe in being happy
I believe in being busy
I believe in being a boy.
Bye'n-bye - I'll be a man.
Give us a chance!
We are citizens to-morrow.

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SOME CHILDREN WHO WORK IN YOUR STATE
ACCORDING TO THE LATEST FEDERAL CENSUS
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR THEM?
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HOMEWORK DESTROYS FAMILY LIFE -
Keeps the child from school.
Prevents proper care of home.
Encourages father to shirk responsibilities.
Allows unsupervised, greedy manufacturers and parents
to make a mockery of childhood.
WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR CHILD TO GROW UP HERE OR HERE
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MAKING HUMAN JUNK

GOOD MATERIAL AT FIRST (Picture: "Small girls and boys wanted.")
High Wages
THE PROCESS
THE PRODUCT
Worn-out-looking children
No future and low wages
"Junk"
SHALL INDUSTRY BE ALLOWED
TO PUT THIS COST
ON SOCIETY?
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OTHER PHYSICAL EFFECTS

Children may escape the cogs of the machine
but they cannot escape the deadening effect
of long hours, monotonous toil, lack of proper
recreation, loss of education, vicious
surroundings (Photo labeled "The normal
child" on the left is smiling and healthy
looking and on the right is "The Mill Child"
looking thin and expressionless.)

Would you care to have your child pay
this price?
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EVERY CHILD SHOULD WORK
But the work must develop not deaden
ENCOURAGE WORK
If it trains the child to be a better citizen
STOP IT
If it merely make money
For parent or employer
WE MUST NOT GRIND
THE SEED CORN
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ACCIDENTS
"Children are not equipped
by experience to care for themselves
in modern industry.
AND SO THEY PAY
(2 photos as examples)
WITH A MAIMED LIFE
Three times as many industrial accidents
occur to children as to adults.
Employment of children is due
to ignorance, greed, necessity of
industry and parents.
Are any of these reasons worth a child's life?
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National Child Labor Committee, 1913
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WHY?
TWO MILLION CHILD WORKERS
UNDER SIXTEEN YEARS TODAY -
WE WANT THEM TO BE NORMAL MEN
AND WOMEN. YOU WANT THIS TOO.
JOIN The National Child Labor Committee.
Photo collage of Lewis Hine photographs
superimposed on the outline of a map of the U.S.A.
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      Challenge: Use persuasive information that you have gleaned from the early 1900s poster, Two Million Child Workers Under Sixteen Years Today, created by the National Child Labor Committee along with photographs of Lewis Wickes Hine to construct an argument for or against the impending Congressional vote on Child Labor.
      1. In small groups with one person acting as the recorder, analyze this1900s poster "Two Million Child Workers Under Sixteen Years Today" created by the National Child Labor Committee using your familiarity with the photographs of Lewis Wickes Hine as part of our knowledge base.
      2. Focus on what we know, what we think we know, and what we would want to know more about it in relation to the time period in which it was created and used.
      3. Teacher gathers all groups together and consolidates common responses by categories as group recorders brief the classroom group as a whole.
      4. Teacher leads a discussion about student perception of the effectiveness of the poster to the anti-labor child labor campaign.
      5. Following a teacher-prepared rubric, students write a letter to the National Child Labor Committee expressing their viewpoint about the use and effectiveness of the poster.
      6. Using the rubric, the teacher assesses the letter for correct format, grammar and student reference to labor-related content and social concepts.

      TEACHER ASSESSMENT

      1. How do/did you determine students' prior knowledge? Teacher observation of content and skill readiness prior to introduction of the next task.
      2. What have you planned to ensure that all students receive instruction appropriate to their needs and interests? Assessment of individual learning style and needs of students with adapted lessons for individual needs.

Useful Site Resources:

Lewis Hine Photographs (NARA) | National Child Labor Committee Collection of Lewis Hine Photographs at Library of Congress


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