Hey guys!

Hi Mr. Stetina,
I know that it's been a while since anyone has posted on this blog and I'm not sure if you're still able to access or use it. But I wanted to write on here and extend my best wishes to you - I hope that everything in Argentina is going extremely well for you and your family. I hope that you're doing well with your baby!
The reason I'm writing is because of my history class today with Mrs. Mcfeeley. Today in class, a man named Hezekiah Lewis came in to talk to our class about film-making. He's a professional film maker and he talked to us about making films in Ghana, Haiti, and other places he has travelled to tell the stories of children. At the end of class, he recommended that all of us watch one of the best films, in his opinion, that depicts stories of different cultures. He said that we should all watch Baraka! I am one of the only people in my current history that was in your class freshman year, so I was somewhat alone when I freaked out and yelled that Mr. Stetina showed us that film freshman year, and it was awesome!
Immediately I thought back to our freshman history course and all of the wonderful things you taught me. I just want you to know that I learned more in that class than I ever have before, and I miss it more than you know. I can't believe that soon, my sophomore year will be over and we will all be juniors! My time in high school truly is flying by. It feels like I'll always still be a freshman in your history class.

Thank you so much for everything you did for me that year. It truly will stay with me for the rest of my life.
I hope that you are able to check this blog and read this, despite the long time that it has been since I've written!

Best Wishes, Nicole Hovatter

Welcome to 9th Grade History!

Good Luck

Just wanted to hope that you got to Argentina safely and how Argentina is doing really well in the World Cup is probably making you very happy. I hope you are doing well Mr. Stetina and that everything goes well with your baby. Best Wishes-Matthew Brown

The Never Ending Game: Powerade

Just an awesome video about soccer. I quickly linked globalization the minute the film began. I hope you can too.
-Shanelle

Excerpt Response

After reading this article, my opinion on the Industrial Revolution has completely changed. I cannot imagine myself having to work 48 hours a week in a factory. These children who were forced to work got barely any money for their family and experienced awful working conditions. These children should not have even been able to work. I cannot imagine having to give up my childhood to start working under the age of 13. And on top of that, they were faced with harsh conditions like sexual abuse and sicknesses. It says a lot that even men were extremely tired and had a hard time working. That makes me think that if it was so hard on the men, how hard was it to work as a child doing the same thing? It must have been unbearable. The article really made me think about how we take things for granted. These children and adults worked extremely hard to continue to improve on the vast advancements that we use today. It really makes me have a lot of mix feelings about the Industrial Revolution and it makes me feel very sad.

Working Conditions: Primary Source

The primary source that I found was about the working conditions for women and children during the industrial revolution. The article was from a newspaper from the mid 1800's. The article said that women and children were allowed to work in Coal Mines with the men and boys, but was paid less. The article also said the women and children had to dress like men and their jobs consisted of cleaning up after the men and boys after they completed their tasks. Also, the article said that the women and even young children were commonly sexually abused from the other workers. Overall, the working conditions were unbearable, but many women and children could not get out of working in the Coal Mines. I think that not only is there injustice and inequality between women and children and the men and boys, there is working conditions that are deathly and emotionally not good. I cannot imagine having to deal with this. This article showed to me that the Industrial Revolution was just like globalization, it is bad and good.

Excerpt response

I think that this really broadens my views on what life was like for those kids in that time. I do think that we are looking at it from a 21st century point of view in which we are molded to show compassion for things. If we look at it from their view then we see that they are getting extra income that they wouldn't otherwise get and they are helping stimulate the economy of England. The conditions might be bad but more money is better than no money and the more people in the family that work the better off the family is money wise, until someone gets sick. Also we have to note that there were people looking at this and acknowledging that it was wrong because it ended eventually but in that time the majority of the higher class citizens probably just looked the other way if they saw the people working in their factories.

Response to the Excerpt

My goodness. This article painted quite a picture of these workers for me. I don't think I had the serious and disgusted attitude toward Indistrial Revolution workers (especially children) until I really read this article. I mean, it was just sad on every level. Why is human society just messed up time after time. I mean really, what kind of person in their right mind says "okay, since children don't have to get paid as much, just let them work". I'd let them get paid in the first place, but to begin with, I don't even like the idea of them working. I, personally started working when I was fourteen years old. At my job, I can leave and come back when I have time and what works best for me. I get paid a nice amount for my age. As I get older, the payment goes up. I can't imagine, like Mr. Stetina said in class, looking at the pre-k kinds that walk down the hall innocently to get their lunch are the workers in this article. Disgusting. Anyone, to begin with shouldn't go through hard labor like this. It's completely unhumane how everyone else benefits off of the blood, sweat, and tears of others. Well, that's life for you.

Women In Coal Mines

This article included someone's opinion on women in coal mines, which was not a good one, along with two women saying what they did in the coal mines. I mainly want to talk about a woman named Betty Harris's experience. She first started working when she was twelve years old, weaving in a factory. She never got an education and can't read or write. Soon after she began working in a coal mine as a drawer. She what sorts of labor she preformed for her job as a drawer and the poor conditions of it. She would work from 6 in the morning to 6 at night and often come home so tired she wouldn't wash up. The work life of this time was almost heartbreaking.

Factory Article Response

I never realized how many health problems a person could have working in a factory at this time, especially children. I really liked the first paragrapgh because while reading it I could imagine these people and what they looked like. It was really sad and overwhelming hearing about the crippled and deformed children just from working in these factories. I didn't know that it could stunt your growth that drastically. I can not imagine living in this time and having to be one of those employed children. Most people think that the Revolutions like the Industrial Revolution are all good and only had good outcomes but when you really look deep like we are you finally realize that is not true at all. When we first started learning about this and were making our list in class I thought that there were alot of good outcomes, which there were, but reading these articles recently I have formed a different opinion. It was really sad that we still have things like this in sweat shops and
3rd world countries and it really needs to be ended.

Response to Article

This article takes a topic like the industrial revolution and turns it into a personal account of conditions in the factories that powered Europe. We tend to think of factories that have terrible conditions as sweatshops, and is illegal in most of the western world. Back then, though, it was common and no laws protected workers. This article describes these conditions in detail as well as descriptions of the types of people who worked in factories. It even argued that a factory was no place for children as the problems concerning their growth are hugely numerous. Overall, this article put a different perspective of the industrial revolution.

Response to Article

Before we started reading about the Industrial Revolution, I thought it was all good things and improvements. After reading this article I realized the bad aspects of it too. The working conditions doubled for adults and kids and the poor working conditions lead to physical altercations of their bodies. Children would work up to 16 hours a day bending over in the same position all day. Their bodies were growing wrong and their form became to change. Using little of their leg muscles damaged growth in them. It's not like they had much choice either, with the kids spending their days working, they couldn't get good educations to get better jobs. Without the jobs at the factory their entire family could be out on the streets. Although there were many improvements in communities, the Industrial Revolution was a rough time for some.

Response to Industrial Revolution Article

I was surprised reading this article to learn about how bad factory work was for people's health. The fact that it stunted growth and caused people to go lame is appalling. Also, one of the writings, from a factory owner who, the website says, worked hard to protect cotton workers, goes on about how laws that restricted the number of hours a person could work were an "inconvenience". He does also talk about how it was wrong for factory owners to work people that hard, the idea that people working shorter hours is a bad idea is there. Although that particular section said a lot about working hours, it also talked about how new machines increased production, which, is a lot of what the Industrial Revolution is about, becoming more efficient.

Response To Article

This was a very eye opening article. Some of the things it siad happened to textile workers were unbelievable. I was shocked to hear how since the workers bent over so much their legs started to change and how they got a lot of problems. The way this person described the workers gave me a clear picture of how they probably looked and how miserable they were. This is how some people today are treated like in sweatshops and I found it interesting how they relate today. Its almost as if not all the world has left behind theidea of having workers work like this like Nike. I'm sure this is how they treat workers but just slightly different.

Response to Textile Workers Article

I found this article somewhat shocking, but also very informative, and it also put things into perspective. I agree with what Sarina said about how all of the changes that came from the Industrial Revolution affected a lot of people and sometimes not in very good ways. These changes were affecting how children grow up, and how women die. Living a life where it is hard to put food on the table is difficult. But when the Industrial Revolution cam rolling around these families suffered even more. Peoples childhoods were taken away because they had to work 16 hour days. This was shocking and difficult to put my mind around.