As I read over the articles associated with this blog assignment I found that the AFT website about child farmworkers in America struck me to have the most affect on diversity in the classroom. This perspective of immigrants both legal and illegal and how it will affect the classroom I will be teaching in is of great interest to me. I think it could potentially have a large bearing on diversity in the classroom.
First we are given many statistics about these immigrant children working on farms in America. I was shocked to see an estimated 150,000 to 1.2 million. Then again on a different page the information claimed that 500,000 were under the age of 18. That is a very broad window of estimation and seemingly inconsistent throughout the content of the website. If there are indeed 1.2 million children working on farms, I question who is insuring these children get an education? Another statistic was that most begin working by the age of eight. I can’t imagine asking an 8-year-old child to work 70 hours a week. And I question if this is an employer decision or something that a parent requires.
I am not necessarily sure I believe the facts presented by this website. I do realize there are children working in fields in America. However, I have questions about how they end up there. An organization called Human Rights Watched reported, “Children, like many adult farmworkers, typically earn far less than minimum wage, and their pay is often further cut because employers underreport hours and force them to spend their own money on tools, gloves, and drinking water that their employers should provide by law” (HRW, 2010). No child would be doing that unless the parents approved it. There are many other factors to consider in this scenario. I mainly want to look at how it will affect my classroom.
We first must consider if these children came out of the fields and into our classrooms, how we would handle insuring that they learn to a satisfactory level. I personally do
believe in providing every child with the opportunity to learn whether they are in this country legally or not. Sadly HRW also reported that children working under these conditions are 4 times more likely to drop out of school (HRW, 2010). I do question if as part of the immigration laws there should be some type of language class to pass before acquiring legal citizenship. This would help illuminate some of the issues this scenario presents.
One reason I believe that there are children in fields instead of the classroom is because they can’t speak the language. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for me to go to Guatemala and experience the culture shock and end up in school at the age of 8 not knowing anyone and getting through one day. That would terrify me. I certainly would never expect my child to do that. So I believe out of fear and because of the language barrier many children do what they can to help their family stay in America, they go to work. As a teacher I am not sure how you would try and bridge that communication gap. Perhaps with kindness and an on-line translator, we can ease the pain of it, but without formal language classes for children before they enter American schools I am not sure how we can hope to alleviate the problem of children not attending school and
working in these life-threatening conditions.
Then we see this issue compounded by the fact that many children have had no formal education and enter the school system at age 8 or older not knowing the language. How can we ever expect to catch them up to the American children in the classroom who have been going to school since age 4? It seems like an overwhelming situation for the students, parents and teachers.
The reform must go well beyond that proposed by the Department of Labor. I can’t understand why children working in agriculture would have less protective laws than children working in any other job (Reuters, 2011). That makes no sense! Realistically the reform can’t just be focused on the employers. This process begins with these children’s parents. Many of the parents are uneducated and do not speak English as well. The parents would have to be taught that school is best for the children. The farmers they work for will not insure they get any education, because when they do they will leave the farm for a better paying less labor-intensive job. The famers want them to keep working for them because Americans will not work under those conditions for those low wages.
This brings into my mind the party whom to which we must point, the consumers. As Americans we want good paying jobs that require very little work. We also like our time off and we need to be pampered with benefits. We want plenty of comforts and we want higher salaries and cheaper goods. The American demand for inexpensive fast food and groceries has forced the farmers to compromise their ethics and driven them to hire cheap laborers. All of this in the name of getting ahead.
We say we want a greener life-style, but we consume more. We say we want equality, but we really want to oppress those who are less-educated than ourselves. We say we want diversity in the classroom, but I am not convinced we do. As American consumers what we really want is comfort, convenience and ease. I do not think that the American education system is prepared for 1.2 million farm children to enter our schools. As a matter of fact I am pretty sure if only 500,000 showed up at school on Monday morning we would have a big problem.
Resources
American Federation of Teachers. (2007). In our own backyard: the hidden problem of child farm workers in America. Retrieved from https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=2975445&tId=19133319.
Human Rights Watch. (n.d.). US: Child farmworkers’ dangerous lives. Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/node/90200.
Reuters. (August, 2011). U.S. seeks to strengthen safety rules for child farm workers. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/31/us-child-labor-idUSTRE77U6XB20110831.
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