River of Innocents

Education

---

0 Comments

The first step to ending slavery is making sure we all know about it. Most schools today teach slavery as something that happened until the civil war, but they need to be teaching that it still goes on, and they need to be showing it for what it is: one of the world’s worst violations of human rights.

• Write to your school paper.

  If you’re currently enrolled or are an alumnus/alumna of an institute with a school paper, write a short letter to or article for the paper. Remember that some aspects of slavery are very raw and shocking, and be sure not to write something the paper won’t be able to publish. That being said, you can write something very powerful for nearly any level of censorship and political correctness.

• Write a letter to your community’s newpaper.

  Papers often publish letters or short articles written by local residents. This can be one of the best ways to get information about slavery out to your community.

• Write to your school board.

  Ask them to put slavery on the curriculum at your community’s school, in the social studies and health departments. Look at our sample letter for a starting point on what to write.

• Talk to your school board.

  Attend a meeting and tell them your concern. Use the sample letter or talking points for ideas on what to say.

• Talk to your health teacher.

  Ask your or your child’s health teacher to talk to the class about slavery. Do this after class or outside of it. Point her or him to www.riverofinnocents.com for the information she needs, or take a copy of River of Innocents to school.

• Talk to your history teacher.

  Ask your or your child’s history or social studies teacher to talk to your class about modern slavery. It’s best to do this while the class is covering the American Civil War, as this is when the class is talking about slavery, but it can be done at any time. Other good times might be when the class is covering either modern or Grecco-Roman history.

• Talk to your English teacher.

  Talk to your or your child’s English teacher about Uncle Tom’s Cabin and River of Innocents. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was perhaps the most historically influential book in US history, and it belongs in American classrooms. So when you study Uncle Tom’s Cabin, talk about River of Innocents too, and about the modern slavery it speaks of.

 

Leave a reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.