1. Using the websites listed below, as well as others found by students, divide students into several groups to research aspects of the history of child labor and compulsory schooling laws. Each group should take one of the following questions to study:
- Why were children so often put to work rather than sent to school?
- Is there any difference in the characteristics of working children and non-working children?
- What was the prevailing view of childhood in the 19th century and how did it begin to change?
- What was the role of various reform groups, such as the General Federation of Women's Clubs, in changing people's ideas about child labor?
2 After completing research, students can select from several possible projects:
- Create a parallel timeline of child labor and compulsory schooling laws
- Write the story of one particular effort to pass laws again child labor (none of these laws were easily enacted!)
- Debate the issue: what were the pros and cons of laboring children?
- Assume the role of a working child and create an artifact (letter, drawing, diary entry) from the life of such a child
- Write a story or poem comparing the lives of working and non-working children at the end of the 19th century.
3. Have students share their impressions, ideas, about the reform effort to take children out of the workplace and put them in school.
- Background on child labor
- Background on views of childhood
- State compulsory attendance laws (dates)
- Role of General Federation of Women's Clubs
This lesson was developed by Dr. Averil McClelland and adapted by Marian Maxfield, Kent State University.