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T A B L E++T A L K Is being a kid today truly more difficult than it was 10 or 20 years ago? Join the discussion in the Social Issues area of Table Talk - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y No turning back My son, the cross-dresser Back to my future Coming clean about her trashy life Violence or entertainment? BROWSE THE MOTHERS WHO THINKARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - - Mamafesto
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INFANT REVOLUTION | PAGE 2 OF 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For the past three years, Nike entered about 800 classrooms in 10 cities across the country. The program was ostensibly designed to teach schoolchildren about the environment: In Nike's "Air-to-Earth" lesson plan, for example, kids construct a running shoe and learn about what goes into manufacturing an environmentally friendly product. "We're not the only company that provides curriculum," Nike senior spokesman Vada Manager says. "I think it's important for companies to let consumers know that the products they support have an environmental or social dimension." Manager denies that the "Air-to-Earth" program is a high-minded PR campaign to offset Nike's growing reputation as an anti-child company, but he admits that if the subject of child labor comes up in discussion, the company will use that time to defend its practices. "We have to be vigilant in speaking directly to consumers about their issues," Manager says. Campaign for Labor Rights, a Washington, D.C., organization, also has developed an educational program about Nike and other companies accused of unethical child labor practices. To teach 4th to 12th grade students in Canada and the United States about the issue, it sells the "Global Sweatshop Curriculum Packet," which covers everything from how much Nike factory workers make a day to the difference between a minimum wage and a living wage. Although Brissell is quick to point out that the organization doesn't advocate a boycott or suggest that kids stop buying Nike products, a question in its material asks: "When you buy a shirt, would it matter to you if you knew that the workers are locked up in the factory during the day so they can't get out and they might die if there was a fire?" In a lesson about the difference between campaigns and boycotts, the text concludes: "As an individual you are going to have to decide for yourself what is the best way to support these campaigns. Some people decide as individuals that they will boycott brands which are the focus of a campaign. Others will write letters to the company." But when kids tell their parents they disapprove of a product, are they acting out of sincere belief or simply repeating spoon-fed rhetoric from adults? What came first? The kids' own activism or the ideologies from adults? Classrooms have long been target audiences for companies, says Kathleen Lyons, a spokeswoman for the National Education Association, because they can "brand" the children early and instigate spending habits that could last a lifetime. Lyons believes that special interest groups, such as Campaign for Labor Rights, are also discovering just how impressionable children are. "It's not good practice to use students as pawns in a political or commercial enterprise," Lyons says. "They're trying to promote a point of view or commercial product to a captive audience. Teachers want to expose their students to a wide range of ideas, but they also want to expose them to objective material." Most educational materials are subject to lengthy approval processes, with state and local boards of education analyzing the information before it ever reaches the children. But corporations and activists are getting around these review processes by shipping information directly to the classrooms, says Lyons. Case in point: When Geof Garner taught a lesson from Campaign for Labor Rights' Global Studies Packet to his high school students, he never had to show the material to an administrator. He feels justified in using the information as an educational tool and scoffs at the utopian ideal of a nonbiased classroom. "I was glad this had an angle and an attitude," he says. "Everything has a bias; the textbook has an agenda just like this does. So I had no reservations in using it. The more perspectives, the merrier citizens we will have," he says. Garner maintains that teachers need the instructional materials like the Global Studies Packet because many textbooks don't cover the pressing issues of the day. UNICEF's Nelson points out that while kids may believe in a cause wholeheartedly, they sometimes need the help of adults to learn how to contact the press, to organize, to make their voices heard. Whether children have the necessary experience and access to information to make informed decisions remains in question. But in a country where many adults take less and less interest in public citizenship, children, with their fierce passion for fairness, may be the last bastion of moral engagement. Although Christina, the 16-year-old activist, originally heard about the
Nike controversy from the social workers at her community center, she
maintains that it was her own compassion that motivated her to get
involved. "It's a moral issue; it's clear to me that what's going on in
these countries is not right," she says. Her voice cracks as she grapples
with how to express her conviction, and then she begins to cry. "When I see
the hungry people in Somalia, I just cry. I see them on TV and it does
something to me. I just want to help out everybody -- regardless of race or
color."
Weigh in on the difficulty of raising a child in opposition to popular culture in the Mothers area of Table Talk.
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