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Current Event: Child Labor
Lead Article: Fanninp-, Karen, Voices From The Fields: Mexico, Scholactic News Zone http://teacher.scholastic.com/newszone/specialreports/labor/voices.htm	Support Article #1: Stolen Dreams: Very good pictures of child labor workers. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/gallery/intro.html
Support Article #2: Sweatshop March: Global March on Five Continents Targets Child Labor Long article about child labor in Mexico, plus other places around the world. http://www.sweatshopwatch.org/swatch/headlines/1998/march_jan98.html	Support Article #3: Department of Labor report on Child Labor Good information on child labor' http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/media/reports/iclp/sweat/mexico.htm

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Current Event:

Fanninp-, Karen, Voices From The Fields: Mexico, Scholactic News Zone http://teacher.scholastic.com/newszone/specialreports/labor/voices.htm Every day Audelia goes with her family to the tobacco farms, and she takes care of her brother while her parents work in the fields. She's four and he's 14 months. There's something wrong with this picture. Why iswt she in school? Well, there!s a simple answer to that. Her parents can't get better jobs than working in tobacco fields. Each year hundreds of children go to work in the fields with their parents. Some of them take care of their younger siblings, while their parents are working hard from sunrise to sunset for sometimes less than $1 an hour. Since they get paid so little, most of them can't afford houses and they have to live in the fields with their children. Since it's so hot, and there is always little or no drinking water available, the kids often suffer from dehydration. It's hoff ible that these children have to work in such terrible conditions for such low pay. We chose this article because it explains what the children in Mexico have to go through while they or their families are working in the fields. We knew children around the world were forced or had to work for money for their families, but we didn't know it was this intense and started out so young. They are forced into an environment that allows only poverty and they need to work, but by working they can not get a good education. Central Issue: Whole families work in the fields and get paid almost nothing for it; less than $ 1. That money can't buy enough food for the families, because most have four or five people in them. Kids are sadly underfed, while their parents still remain underpaid, overworked, and underfed with no education. The Underlying Issue in this article is since they get paid too badly; the families can't afford an education for their children. So they have no way of getting a better job then the fields. So it's like an ongoing cycle for the people working and for their kids. Some of these children may never get the chance to learn, which is a wonderful opportunity in life these poor kids won't get to experience. Ouestions What is daily life like for the children of most of Mexico's farm workers? Why do you think nobody has been able to stop child labor from occurring? Why can't people with low paying jobs ever seem to get a better job that pays more?. What would your reaction be if you had to change from the lifestyle you have now to the life of these children? If you smoked cigarettes, would you continue to smoke after finding out what the tobacco workers have to go through every day? Explain your answer. Support URL's Stolen Dreams: Very good pictures of child labor workers. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/gallery/intro.html Long article about child labor in Mexico, plus other places around the world. http://www.sweatshopwatch.org/swatch/headlines/1998/march_jan98.html Good information on child labor' http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/media/reports/iclp/sweat/mexico.htm

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