Chicago Union Teacher

(April 1956)

If you should ask your son or daughter what has made America great, you will be sure to hear that it is our "free enterprise" system. Perhaps your youngster will add something about American "know-how" or our mass production system or the perseverance of our captains of industry.

The chances are that he knows nothing of the contribution of labor to the building of our country or of the sacrifices of ordinary working men and women who, through struggles and strikes, made possible our eight-hour day and our present high standard of living.

What impression of work, of the contributions of labor to American history, of unions and union leaders, do children receive in our schools today?

In the basic readers used in the primary and middle grades no working parents are presented. There is no story read later on about the everyday heroism of workers.

Tunnels and bridges and skyscrapers may be presented as engineering feats, but the tremendous work and human sacrifices of the sandhogs, the carpenters, riveters, masons and the 'unskilled' laborer are omitted.

Of all the full length biographies read in janitor and senior high schools none are of labor leaders.

Your child will learn about Ford or Walt Disney, about Chrysler or Edison but rarely about Powderly, Gompers, Hillman, Lewis, Green and never about the union organizer, the shop steward or the Jimmy Higgins on the picket line!

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update 25 July 2008