American Dream vs American Reality

This week we have continued to explore the impacts of Westward Expansion, with a focus on the Industrial Revolution and immigration.

On Monday, students learned about the Industrial Revolution. The lesson began with us thinking about how the innovations we had learned about the previous week would have impacted industry in the East. Students quickly realized that the new resources and innovations needed to be created and mass produced so that everyone in the country and the world would have access to them. With that in mind, students learned how the world changed in order to adapt to the new demand for products. We learned about the difference between a cottage industry and a factory. In order to make the learning concrete, students were given 15 minutes to create a pair of roller blades, start to finish in any design that they would like. Students spent most of the time coloring and decorating and the few that finished within the allotted time were lovely. However, in no class did we have more than half of the students complete a pair of skates.

Then, the cottage industries became factories. Where once a student was in charge of all aspects of production, suddenly they had only a single role. Some kids were responsible for cutting out the boots, some the blades, others for coloring one boot or one blade, while still others were in charge of gluing and quality control. Factories were given 15 minutes to once again produce skates, this time as many as they could. Some factories were far more successful than  others, though there was a definite uptick in production across the board. For homework, students were asked to reflect on the experience looking at productivity, quality, and the costs/benefits of each method.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we focused on how westward expansion and the Industrial Revolution led to an increase in immigration. Students first read about why immigrants came, what their lives were like in the United States, their impacts on cities and urbanization, and the reaction of Americans to their arrival. 

Then, on Wednesday, students were divided into one of six families that were contemplating immigrating to the United States (Chinese, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, and Russian). Each family was given a brief overview of what their life in their native country was like. Then, as with real immigrants, ads from American businesses, success stories, and letters home from other immigrants were used to sway their decision to move.  Upon their decision (all ultimately immigrated), they then read about their reality of the American experience. They read about living and working conditions and looked at images of tenements, sweatshops, and enclaves. I also taped out a 10 by 6 foot rectangle on the floor, the size of an actual tenement house for a family of six, the students were horrified to see what a home that size would have actually looked like. They also learned about how Americans viewed and treated their "family".  Once again we looked at newspaper stories, want ads (which excluded groups) and poems from Angel Island. 

Finally, students were asked to divide up and share their American experience with other families to compare and contrast. We discussed how poverty and lack of skills was a common denominator for many of those that came and how that impacted the lives they were forced to live and how others saw them. We also talked about why immigrants would choose to live in enclaves within cities and finally if our treatment of immigrants has changed.  The level of discussion and insight was spectacular.

On Thursday we end the new content about the impacts of moving westward with the rights and responsibilities of women. It was nice to end on a positive note with women in the West getting the right to vote (in some states, almost all women) 50 years before women in the East. Finally, I introduced our next big project, a debate on whether or not it was our manifest destiny to move across the country.

We will be preparing for the debate starting today and throughout the week that we return from Spring Break. On Friday, April 5th the debate will be held in all three classes. Once again I am asking for parent volunteers to come serve as the jury members to determine which side better presents their case.