EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
How well do we know our own history, including the history of work and
the history of our unions here in Rochester?
Answer: not well enough.
If we don't educate ourselves, our students and our community
about our work and our unions, who will?
Answer: no one.
The business community tells its story to young people
in the schools; Junior Achievement, a national program of the US Chamber
of Commerce, encourages children
to see themselves as potential entrepreneurs. If we want our kids to have positive
images of unions and to take pride in seeing themselves as workers, it's up
to us — the labor community — to conduct our own programs.
That's why the Labor Council and several affiliates created
the Rochester Education Alliance of Labor — REAL — to bring together local
educators and other workers
to develop materials that unions, schools and community
groups can use to learn our history. REAL has developed two basic types of educational
materials: labor histories and work-related curricula.
Labor
History materials include a history of the Labor Council, a documentary video, a map/guide and an essay
on Rochester's General Strike:
-
Sesquicentennial History of the Rochester Labor Council is
an on-site and print publication sponsored and published by the Ronald
G. Pettengill Labor Education Fund.
- Struggle in Smugtown
is a 45-minute video documentary which begins to tell the
story of Rochester's workers, radicals and reformers: their work, their unions,
their struggles for social justice.
- Rochester Labor History Map/Guide is a pocket-size booklet commemorating the
history of the city's working people through self-guided tours, with maps
and site-specific text.
- The 1946 General Strike of Rochester, New York is an on-site essay which traces the story of the
1946 struggle between organized labor and City Hall; illustrated with images
from an AFL photographer.
Work Curriculum materials include an exhibit
and coloring book showing Rochester workers on the job,
a work guide for high school students, a series of "We Do the Work" modules, and
several teachers guides to using these materials
in the classroom:
- Rochester: A Community of Workers, is a virtual exhibit of photographs depicting members of more than 30 affiliate unions of the Rochester Labor Council on their jobs. With the images are quotes from worksite interviews with these workers.
- Our Community of Workers Coloring Book includes 28 captioned line drawings based on images in the photo exhibit, along with sample activities for children. Now in its 4th printing. almost 40,000 copies have been distributed to unions and school. A companion Handbook contains age-appropriate work-related exercises for young students using the coloring book.
- REAL WorkGuide is a pocket-size booklet that addresses high school students' questions about the world of work. One section traces the changing US economy over the past 50years while another deals with workplace issues such as pay, safety, rights, and unions.
- We Do the Work is a series of modules on 21 of the nationally broadcast TV programs about work and workplace issues. Each module includes questions, activities, vocabulary, etc. that teachers can use along with program videos.
- Teachers' Study Guide is an instructional aid for secondary teachers using "Struggle in Smugtown." Its 15 sections correspond to the sections of the video and include sample classroom activities and exercises.
- Our Community of Workers Handbook is a collection of age-appropriate work-related execises for young students using the " Community of Workers" coloring book.
TOP
|
