NEA Today - A magazine for educators http://www.nea.org/neatoday/ NEA Today XHEMS 20050506 RD Education For All - The Right Response to Child Laborhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/childlabor.htmlhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/childlabor.htmlWed, 11 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMTEducation For All - The Right Response to Child Labor

Teacher unions help lead fight against global problem

Two years ago, Sara Marbouh, a twelve-year-old student in Fez, Morocco, dropped out of school and joined the swelling ranks of young children forced into child labor. It wasn’t Sara’s decision – she loved school – but one evening her mother told her that someone would “come for her” the next morning and she would begin work full-time as a housemaid.

“I cried a lot and my mother cried,” she recalls,” but it was a must.”

Sara’s family is large and very poor.  Like so many other families facing extreme poverty, parents in Morocco often depend on their children to leave school and begin a life sentence working in jobs that are physically exhausting and often dangerous. The chance that they will be given another educational opportunity is slim to none.

poster.jpg
A child labor awareness poster hangs on a door at an elementary school in Fez, Morocco.

Sara was lucky. Six months later, she was back in school and loving every minute. She escaped child labor thanks to a dropout prevention program initiated by the Syndicat Nationale de l’Enseignement,  the leading teachers union in Morocco. The remarkable success the program has achieved in curbing the dropout rate in five of Fez’s poorest schools is the focus of a new documentary video, produced by Education International (EI), the world’s largest global union federation. Representing more than 30 million teachers and education workers worldwide, EI works with other global organizations, including the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to prevent and eliminate child labor.

According to the ILO, there are approximately 218 million child laborers - between the ages 5 and 14 - worldwide. The exhausting and grueling work many of these children are involved in expose them to lasting psychological and physical danger.  Morocco has one of the highest child labor rates in the Middle East and North Africa and is concentrated in the country’s agricultural sector, as well as the carpet, garment, and leather tanning industries. Less visible are the “petite bonnes” (“little maids”) - house servants, who are holed up in some of the more affluent neighborhoods in Morocco’s cities.

Key to the prevention of child labor in Morocco and around the world is the alleviation of poverty and illiteracy. The absence of educational opportunities for poorer families, however, makes it difficult, if not impossible, to break the cycle of poverty. 

To theme of World Day Against Child Labor 2008 (June 12) is improving access to education - not only a basic human right but a critical building block in the fight against child labor.

The SNE dropout prevention program in Fez thrives on this commitment. Initiated in 2005, the program has a multifaceted approach to tackling the dropout problem. As seen in Educational International's video, the results in the five targeted schools have been startling. Each school has seen significant reductions in the number of dropouts. Schools are cleaner, students are enthusiastic about learning, parents are more committed to their children's education and teachers are benefiting from new professional development opportunities.

Abdelaziz Mountassir, SNE vice-president, says combating child labor is an important and natural role for teachers unions.

"As educators we fight child labor because it’s our duty to defend the rights of children to learn.”

You can watch the video here.

-Tim Walker
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The Frontlines of Global Warming
 
The Earth is heating up
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The Earth is heating up

Lesson 1Lesson One

Our Unique Atmosphere - Grade 6-12 Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans - Education

How does our atmosphere keep the earth warm?

Objectives: Students will be able to explain how heat-trapping gases work in the atmosphere, explain why carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are necessary for life as we know it and post their ideas on the Global Warming 101 forum.

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Time needed: at least forty minutes
Grade Level: middle school and high school

Lesson 1Lesson Two

Emissions of Heat-trapping Gasses - Grade 6-12 Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans - Education

Objectives: Students will be able to explain how increased atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping gases warm the atmosphere and predict what will happen to global temperatures if atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping gases increase. Students will be able to identify sources of heat-trapping emissions, calculate their carbon footprint and identify ways they can reduce their carbon footprint and post their ideas on the Global Warming 101 forum.

Download Lesson Two: Emissions of Heat-trapping Gasses

Time needed: at least forty minutes
Grade Level: middle school and high school

Lesson 1Lesson Three

Communities of Living Things - Grade 6-12 Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans - Education

Objectives: Students will be able to explain how changing weather patterns, a changing balance of competitors and changes in the availability of food and shelter can increase uncertainty for communities of living things. Students will also be able to give examples of these uncertainties and disruptions from the Arctic communities and predict how continued warming may affect communities of living things with which they are familiar and will post their ideas on the Global Warming 101 forum.

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Time needed: at least forty minutes
Grade Level: middle school and high school

Lesson 1Lesson Four

Implications of Warming in the Arctic - Grade 6-12 Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans - Education

Besides being a “canary in the coal mine,” why should we learn about global warming in the Arctic?

Objectives: Students will be able to explain feedbacks including surface reflectivity (albedo), ocean circulation, melting permafrost releasing heat-trapping gases and melting ice contributing to rising sea levels. Students will also be able to explain how warming in the Arctic affects the rest of the world and students will post their ideas on the Global Warming 101 forum.

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Time needed: at least forty minutes
Grade Level: middle school and high school

Lesson 1Lesson Five

Regional Effects of Global Warming - Grade 6-12 Interdisciplinary

Although we may see the effects of global warming most dramatically in the Arctic, what effects might we see in the rest of the world?

Objectives: Students will be able to explain how global warming could cause droughts and floods from changing precipitation patterns combined with increased evaporation, more intense hurricanes fueled by warmer oceans, insect and disease outbreaks and other possible effects. Students will also be able to predict what might happen in their region and post their ideas on the Global Warming 101 forum.

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Time needed: at least forty minutes
Grade Level: middle school and high school

Lesson 1Lesson Six

What now? - Grade 6-12 Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans - Education

Objectives: Students will brainstorm ideas of how to respond to global warming, think critically about the trade-offs between different possible courses of action and post their ideas on the Global Warming 101 forum.

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Time Needed: Forty minutes (minimum)
Grade Level: Middle school and high school

 
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