Texas Middle School Students Are Slaves for a Day

The sixth graders at North Richland Middle School in Texas had only been reading about child slavery, both in 19th century America and modern-day Pakistan.  That is, until teachers and parent volunteers decided to bring the lesson home by setting up a sweatshop inside the classroom.

For a whole day, students

"...sorted coal and fabrics; others tended machines or sewed tiny beads into strips of cloth."

But the slavery lesson didn't stop with the work.  Students were severly berated by teachers and parents for not working fast enough or making mistakes.

"Wrong. You are doing it all wrong," shouted another [parent volunteer], who then scooped freshly sorted gravel back into a pile and instructed all the young workers to 'do it again!'"

While some students left the classroom in tears, others said it brought the reality of what child slaves experience home.  All agreed it was not an experience they would easily forget.

What do you think of this experiment?  I'm not a mother, but if I was, I would feel uneasy about my child being subjected to life as a child slave, even if it's only for an afternoon.  On the other hand, a taste of that experience may make these young people more passionate about working to end child slavery so that other kids don't have to experience that pain and abuse (all day, every day).  Parents (or soon-to-be-parents), would you allow your child to participate in this sort of activity?

Additional Note: Clay has written a great article about this issue at the Education blog, where he looks at the issue of "simulated trauma" in the classroom.