Child Labor

This unit will teach students to be more democratic, empathetic and justice-oriented individuals. Throughout this unit, the students will learn about child labor, jobs and conditions, regulations by state, and past and present laws. They will be able to answer the following questions:

• Guiding Question: Is child labor wrong in today’s world based on what we know about child labor during the Progressive Era?

• Supporting Questions:

  • What is the Progressive Era?

  • What is child labor? How is it different than the chores in your house?

  • What did children do in the factories, farms, etc? What was it like to work in a factory?

  • How do the different regulations of Child Labor during the Progressive Era relate to the demographics of different states?

  • What were the child labor laws? How did people get laws enacted?

  • Is child labor still an issue? What laws exist today? Where does child labor exist today?

 

Why we chose this topic?

This topic was chosen because we believed that the Progressive Era was too broad of a topic, and that it needed to be focused. Child labor affects a group of individuals that is the same age as our audience. However, our students have not had to endure harsh working conditions in order to help support their families. Therefore, we believe that teaching this topic will help students establish empathetic thinking for children who have gone through (and are still going through) child labor. 

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How does this topic connect with your students?

We know that Norwalk is roughly 95% white, it would be easy to talk about the lives of middle-class white Americans living in the Progressive Era. However, we have learned that these are the students that need to most expansion of social justice issues. We have decided to cover the topic of the lives of children living in the Progressive Era. This will allow the students to relate directly to what children's daily lives looked like. We also know that 7% of the Norwalk community works in manufacturing,  so choosing this topic could help the students potentially connect to some of the jobs their friends and family members hold.