Child Labor Socratic Seminar Reflection

Child Labor Socrative Seminar Reflection

              In today's class we all participated in a Socratic Seminar on the topic of Child Labor. We discussed the pro's and the con's of this situation today and we debated if we would buy products made using child labor.
               Throughout the seminar I discussed with my classmates the problems occurring with child labor. One of the examples I brought up was how the kids working on Tobacco Fields get acute nicotine poisoning from working with these substances. One of the next things I said was that i agreed with the fact that the owners should supply the kids with clean working conditions because if they don't their workers will continue getting sick and that doesn't help to get their work done. Later on in the discussion I brought up that the owners don't exactly care about their workers and their health. The owners hired these kids to get their jobs done for cheap pay and they don't care about their health.
                 I thought it was interesting that one of my classmates thought they should label all products in  made with child labor because it would definetly help put a stop to child labor. I know if I was about to buy a product and it was labeled "made with the tears of children" I would definitely put it back on the shelf. It was also interesting to me that people thought the owners of companies shouldn't be responsible of keeping the working spaces clean. Someone thought the kids should supply themselves equipment to keep them safe. I also thought it was interesting that most of my classmates disagreed because if kids are gonna work long hours for them they should keep a safe working environment, which I agree with.
               I think our group did really well on giving everyone a chance to speak and a lot of had examples to backup our ideas and if someone didn't someone else would give an example to support their idea. I think next time we do a Socratic Seminar we should sit in more of a circle because then you can clearly see everyone you are speaking with. Also I think we could debate on more things and state if we agree or disagree with something because I was curious was my classmates thought of my ideas.

Travel Times to London by Railroad 1750-1830

Key:

Red- Birmington

Green- Brighton

Blue- Manchester

Yellow- York

The traveltimes to London by Railroad from different places improved from 1750-1830 by at least 1/4 if not more. For example the time it took to get to London from Brighton in 1750 was 23 hours in 18530 it only took 4 hours. This indicates that there is major improvement in the railroad production. Another thing we noticed is that in 1830 it took 20 hours to get to London from both Manchester and York when in 1750 it took 73 hours from Manchester and 96 from York. This could mean that the railroads are still being improved to be faster in those places.

City Inspector's Report, Manchester England 1847 

This report dated in 1847 has been provided for the urban planning committees of various cities in England. My name is Emma Rainville, 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.

The positive impact of Industrialization on Life and work in the cities were shown in Documents B and E. In Document B it’s shown that the people living near Manchester had good living conditions. As it said in the document people lived in “gorgeous palaces” and that means Manchester was probably a nice place to live at the time. in Document E the setting was in a smoky valley with lots of family's. It was said that the smoke from the factories was a good thing because it gives the people and children food and jobs. I question that the smoke from the factories was all good because it pollutes the air the families breath and that could cause illness.

           There were several Documents that showed negative impacts on people. For example Document A described the river next to the factory with black smoke and the water was dyed purple. This can't be good for the Earth or the peoples lungs. In Document C it's stated that the people were locked in dungeons with heavy air and children lost their childhood to jobs. This is extremely bad living conditions for people especially children. Lastly in Document D the factory was filled with horrible smells of tainted water and human filth. The helpless children had health problems and had no fun in their lives due to jobs. This is a terrible place to live or even work at. One thing I question about this Document is the premature old age in children, it seems unlikely that children could look old due to these bad working conditions.

         I think industrialization had an overall negative impact on living and working conditions in these cities because all of the pollution and illnesses it must've caused. The information that lead me to believe it is mostly negative is the river described in Document A as black and purple. These are not colors anybody wants to see in a river and this was caused by industrialization.