Child Labor Today Seminar Reflection

In today's class we had a socratic seminar to discuss child labor that is currently going on. 

       One point I brought up to the class was that to know if the child made an item like a piece of clothing that it might not have been made well because the children were so young. Another point I brought up was that the children were being treated very poorly, and underwent punishments. For example, in the documentary we watched they said that a girl was locked up in the attic with a dead corpse in it as well.

        A point made by a lot of others in the group was about how the owners could fertilize the crops without the hazard of poisoning the children. One of those points was to fertilize the plants at night so the toxic material wouldn't be as bad by the morning.

      I felt that our group did really well with showing that we agreed or disagreed on a point someone else made. Also, we did a really good job on letting everyone have a chance to speak, and participate. I think that next time we shouldn't transition into questions so quickly because at certain points one person asked a question and another person answered it, but then we would change to a new question. Also, I think we should be given more time to get everyone's thoughts and opinions in. 

City Inspector's Report- Lancashire, England

For this assignment, I was pretending to be a city inspector, and my job was to get evidence of how poor or how well life and work were in an industrial city.

This report dated September 15, 1847 has been provided for the urban planning committees of various cities in England. My name is Kara D’Alessio, and as a mid-level city inspector I trust that you will use the information within to determine appropriate needs in urban planning for your municipalities. My report has been through as I have made use of all the sources available to me and have worked to guide you through my own analysis and critical thinking to a full description of the issues facing our cities.

On my journey to different factories and workplaces, I have found that there are positive views of Industrialization on life and work. Some of the factories were quite picturesque. At one of them I found out that injuries were quite rare, and when they did happen they were properly taken care of. (excerpt E, “Notes of a Tour in the Manufacturing Districts of Lancashire, 1842”).  Smoke coming out of the chimneys means food on families kitchen tables. This was their way of getting money.

The negative scenes that I witnessed were just repulsive. In excerpt D, “ The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, The Factory Boy, Francis Trollope, 1840,” it was talking about how the children looked older than they were because of the working conditions. They had “hollow eyes,” “sunken cheeks,” and “distorted limbs.” They also had loud noises that severely hurt their ears, and they were working in vile scents such as human filth. This isn’t a setting for anyone to work in let alone children. From excerpt C, “The Factory Town, Ernest Jones, 1847,” it claimed that there was smoke that could suffocate you, and they were surrounded by fires. All you could hear in there was groaning from hard-working people. This is absolutely not the condition these people should work in.

I think that industrialization had a negative impact on living and working conditions. You shouldn’t work in a place that can kill you or decrease your health. It’s just disturbing and uncomfortable to be surrounded by all of that junk. I think that all of excerpt D was the most convincing because they talk about the state of the children who worked there, and that’s not how a human should look. You shouldn’t hear groaning from people or deep coughing. These factories were full of health hazards that could potentially result in death.

The Industrial Revolution, MakingItMagazine.net, http://www.makingitmagazine.net/?p=8003