PS230 Kids Present Mural to Lander

Students in Mrs. Cynthia Grant’s PS 230 5th grade class on Tues., June 22 presented Councilman Brad Lander with a mural/map of the world that they had researched and created showing the countries that export products produced by child labor. The gift was to thank Councilman Lander for making public schools a priority and for his many get-acquainted visits to PS 230 learning about its students, teachers and the school’s needs.

The map was the result of a year-long unit on labor in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, in which the students learned about the industrial revolution in 19th century England, labor history in 20th century United States, and the use of child labor in many of the countries from which the students’ families have immigrated in the 21st century.

To that end, the students read a novel called Iqbal by Francesco D'Adamo and Ann Leonori, a fictionalized biography of 13-year old Iqbal Masih, murdered April, 1995 in his village in Pakistan just months after being awarded an international prize in Sweden for talking out about his 6 years working in a Lahore carpet factory as a bonded child.

Information for the map came from the U.S. Department of Labor, which tracks goods produced by child labor. The students decided a map was the best way to tell their parents and NYC consumers which countries’ products to boycott to help end child labor. One thing the kids learned as they worked on this project was that countries with high rates of forced child and adult labor also have greater poverty rates.