SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

 

Goal 8  Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.

Global unemployment has steadily decreased over the past two decades, from about 6.4% to 5.6%, but that does not guarantee that all jobs pay well, have safe work environments, or provide decent benefits for employees.

Here's the list of books to choose from.

The concept of 'work' is an interesting one for the students I teach, so I might start with a discussion of work and a picture book such as My Mum Goes to Work by Libby Gleeson.

When I ask the students what their mum or dad does for work, unless it is something with a label like 'lawyer', 'teacher' or 'architect' they usually do not know what they do. If you ask them where they work, at the moment they are likely to say 'at home', so really children under eight years old really do not know what 'work' is, let alone whether the work environment is safe or pays well. So probably here there needs to be some 'shock' factor to make them to think about work and what is fair. 

When I read My Rows and Piles of Coins by M. Tololwa Mollel  they are amazed that a child their age goes to work with his mother, that he doesn't have a bike and has to save up to get one, so reading the biography of Iqbal:A Brave Boy from Pakistan by Jeanette Winter might provide some shock factor.  Iqbal Masih spoke up against child labour in the carpet industry as recently as 1995. If you do read this story, please read the text before you read the 'foreword' or note from the author. You can read it depending upon the students' reaction to the book, knowing now that Iqbal was shot.  There is also a short novel about Iqbal written by Francesco D'Adamo.

Another book that deals with child labour is I Like, I Don't Like by Anna Baccelliere. It has minimal text and appears simple, but with an enabling adult this book allows for much discussion of perspectives of work, leisure, play, childhood.

Here's the blurb:

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child in the world has the right to play. Unfortunately, that universal right is not always respected. I Like, I Don't Like presents this reality to readers by showing how children in varying circumstances can see the same object very differently. 

Children from more affluent circumstances are shown on one side of the double-page spreads, claiming they “like” objects that are fun and/or luxurious, while on the other side, the children who have to make and/or labour over those objects say they don’t like them. Some examples include a child playing with lego bricks on one side, and a kid having to cart piles of bricks on his head on the other. There are happy children eating rice juxtaposed with children having to plant and pick the rice. 

If you want a good book to show how work has changed and will continue to change given discussion of SDG 7 and renewable energy, read Town is By the Sea by Joanne Scwartz and Sydney Smith.

Here's the blurb:

A young boy wakes up to the sound of the sea, visits his grandfather's grave after lunch and comes home to a simple family dinner, but all the while his mind strays to his father digging for coal deep down under the sea. The illustrations show the striking contrast between a sparkling seaside day and the darkness underground where the miners dig. This beautifully understated and haunting story brings a piece of history to life. The ever-present ocean and inevitable pattern of life in a maritime mining town will enthral children.

In the booklet:

• What do your mum and dad do for work? Do you think they are safe at work? What would make a worker feel unsafe at work? Do you think children should work? What makes you think that?

 

• We read

• This story made me think work is

24th August Book Week

Another successful Book Week! The theme Find Your Treasure  proved to be a winner. On Thursday the students dressed as pirates or 'something they treasured' and the teachers had fun reading to three groups of children each over a two hour period of time divided into four 30minute time slots. In this way each student was able to share four wonderful book experiences with teachers that they don't have every day. The classroom teachers read to grades other than theirs. The specialists teachers, including the PE teachers, the music teachers, religion teacher,  the French teacher and the executive teachers read to students. The teachers were asked to choose their own books. I suggested that it be  'a book they treasure'; 'a book they love sharing with children'; a book that fitted the theme of pirates or finding your treasure and I made some suggestions for this or a book that fitted their specialty. The French teacher had fun with Mo Willems' Nanette's Baguette.  One of the PE teachers had kindergarten bouncing all over the place because of Doreen Cronin's Bounce and Stephen Michael King's Emily Loves to Bounce.

Some of the treasure related books chosen were:

• I chose No Pirates Allowed Said Librarian Lou. The library had a huge sign on the door saying PIRATES ALLOWED. I dressed as a pirate, but wore my glasses and a pearl earring like Librarian Lou as well. WE watched the trailer of the book to set the scene. The soundtrack is so suspenseful. Then I read the book with a very loud Pirate Pete and a very quietly spoken Lou. I also had a squawking parrot puppet who had trouble being quiet. The students loved the fact that Lou taught Pete to read and were quick to identify books as the real treasure. Each of them left the library with a bookmark on which they had written their name and favourite book.

• A Kindergarten teacher chose Just Right For Two. This lovely book features a suitcase in which Dog keeps his treasures. Great in for a discussion with the students about what treasures they would put in their suitcases. The story ends with Dog making friends with Mouse and realising friends are also 'treasures', an important message for students such as ours who have a lot of material possessions.

• The Head of Prep chose My Rows and Piles of Coins to read to Year 2 . This wonderful story about a young African child who is working hard to save money to buy a bike so he can help his mother really does highlight what some children value most and what value money has.

• A Year 2 teacher chose 'my favourite childhood book',  Harold's Purple Crayon and had a wonderful conversation with students about what they would draw if they had a magic purple crayon that worked like Harold's and whether or not that crayon would be a treasure.

• Another Year 2 teacher chose to read the shortlisted book,  The Second Sky which beautifully tells students not to yearn for what they do not have but instead value what they do have and make the very most of these treasures (or talents).

Others:
• What a Wonderful World and how our world is a treasure to be valued and kept safe. The Tim Hopgood version is good.
• The Princess and the Perfect Dish by Libby Gleeson...the treasure does not need to be grand, but rather 'special' for a reason. This is a 'perfect' book for this. It needs republishing.
• The Glassmaker's Daughter by Dianne Hofmeyr. This girl, Daniela seemingly has everything but still is not happy. Everyone needs to read this story!
• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves just because it is a classic that children are less likely to know these days and there are some lovely versions sitting on shelves in libraries. Look for the Jean Chapman and Di Wu version.

18th August Book Week Connecting to Reading Part 1

It is Children's Book Week in Australia and the theme 'Connect to Reading' has meant some very insightful reading has been happening in my library. My 5  to 8 year olds have been reading from the Early Childhood and the Picture Book shortlists. We have been connecting these titles to other older books that they may not have known too.

We haven't done any art or craft activities yet. I am saving the Reading to Connect activities for fun in the library this week when we will draw with rainbow pencils and paint with mud, as Ann James does in I'm a Dirty Dinosaur, try to draw a duck in a minute inspired by Silver Buttons and make plastic bag parachutes to float our teddies off the second floor down onto the playground.

So far though we have made text-to-text connections between the two lullabies on the Early Childhood shortlist Baby Bedtime and Kissed by the Moon. We played lullaby music and lay down on the mat as I read.

We read The Swap and connected it to Pat Hutchins 1985 classic The Very Worst Monster which is also about sibling rivalry and the need to get rid of a sibling.

We read Banjo and Ruby Red  and connected it with many books Year1 and I had read last term when we looking at chickens and foxes in picture books and talking about stereotypes. The children thought it reminded them of Albert and Lila,  a chicken and pig story where they help each other to outwit a fox and The Chicken Thief  because 'the hen and fox become good friends'. This connection also led to us reconnecting with Bear and Chook the good friends in Lisa Shanahan's award-winning books.

And although we live near the beach, the concept of grommet was very new to my students, so to read Granny Grommet and Me  we first looked at some surfing books and the news report about granny grommets. One of my students connected this story with Olivia Learns to Surf because in it Olivia is taught to surf by her grandmother. We quickly visited it, but the children were much more interested in talking about sea dragons so that is where we went, off exploring them. The book Seahorses and Seadragons led us to connections of all kinds especially once the students discovered from the maps that they could be found in the sea off Sydney. Next we read another Australian picture book Seadragon Sea  by Margaret Spurling.

The shortlisted Early Childhood books were well received by Kindergarten and Year 1 students, but The Swap  and Banjo and Ruby Red  were the most popular by far when we pretended to be judges and voted, so for once the judges agreed with the children which often isn't the case. It is a fitting tribute to Jan Ormerod to have her last book achieve such an award!

31st January Backwards Day

Backwards Day! What a good idea. Good excuse to wear your cap backwards, practise walking backwards, sitting on a chair backwards...let the children come up with ideas. Try telling a story backwards. Does it work? Is it good to know the solution before the problem?

Read Tell Me the Day Backwards by Albert Lamb and David McPhail. In this story Timmy Bear and his mother play a game just before going to sleep where Timmy has to tell his mother what happened during the day but in reverse order. This is probably a good way to review the day with young children because they often remember the more recent things and need to be prompted about earlier events.

With older children it can be fun to identify names that are spelled the same forwards and backwards, like Eve; Anna; Hannah; Otto and Elle. When I read Libby Gleeson's Skating on Sand to classes the discussion in the book of Hannah's name being a palindrome always elicits long list of other palindromes. Jill Tomlinson's The Penguin Who Wanted to Know has a penguin called Otto and another called Anna so it too is good to start palindrome discussion. If you just want to keep palindrome discussion brief introduce the picture book Mom and Dad are Palindromes by Mark Shulman and Adam McCauley and leave it out for your students to read.

18th June Refugee Week

Day 2 of Refugee Week! Australian authors and illustrators have excelled at producing wonderful books on the themes of refugees, immigration, change, and coping in a new environment. Novels include:

• Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman

• Onion Tears by Diana Kidd

• No Guns For Asmir by Christobel Mattingley and

• Mahtab's Story by Libby Gleeson.

And two very powerful, outstanding picture books, that are often considered to be graphic novels:

• The Arrival by Shaun Tan, and

• The Island by Armin Greder.

All of these are designed for audiences older than my student clientele, but they are books that all teachers need to know about and have in their library for teaching using children's literature.

9th January

Continuing yesterday's Summer theme, I thought today I would make some suggestions for Australian books about the beach and holidays at the beach. Of course, there is Alison Lester's Magic Beach with its irresistible illustrations that make you want to be swimming in those waves too. Next, another oldie, but goodie, Greetings From Sandy Beach by Bob Graham. Every Australian family that has ever been camping, had someone be sick in the car or met bikies will relate well to this and if they haven't it is still a good laugh. Thirdly, Tim Winton's The Deep, a family story about the youngest child being brave enough to swim in deep water by herself. Roland Harvey's At the Beach with its postcards home to the grandparents telling all about the children's holiday at Crabby Spit. Australia at the Beach by Max Fatchen should be on this list too, but I want to feature it on Australia Day because it is about the archetypal beach celebration for commemorating this Australian holiday. And lastly, a chapter book which is also about the beach and camping, Skating on Sand by Libby Gleeson. This is the story of Hannah, the younger sister of twin older sisters who give her a hard time about skating, but Hannah's perseverance and obstinacy pays off.

19th September Libby Gleeson (1950)

This week at school I showed Year 1 an old episode of the ABC television series Book Bug, a dramatised version of Libby Gleeson's junior novel, Skating on Sand. The children sat transfixed except for the odd giggle at Hannah struggling to skate. When it was finished there was considerable discussion about how Hannah was treated by her older sisters. The viewers empathised with Hannah. They knew what it was like to be scared. They listed words to describe Hannah and came up with stubborn, determined, brave and persistent. We also had fun listing palindromes, an aside initiated by the children. When I showed them the novel and its sequels, they expressed surprise that it was by the same author who wrote Amy and Louis and Clancy and Millie and the Very Fine House which they know much better. Someone said, 'I didn't know she wrote chapter books!' This would have been the ideal time to look at the catalogue and make a collection.

Libby Gleeson is a very versatile writer, writing right across the age spectrum. In the past I have enjoyed Eleanor Elizabeth and I Am Susannah with older classes and I would love to be teaching older children now so that I could share Mahtab's Story. Instead with my Year 2 classes next term I will get to share my favourite of Libby's picture books The Princess and the Perfect Dish. Each of her picture books is a delight, made very different by the choice of illustrator. Armin Greder, Julie Vivas, Ann James and Freya Blackwood, are so different in style that each book is fresh, and a new experience to be savoured.

4th July American Independence Day

Happy Birthday America. It is hard to believe America has been independent of Britain since 1776. Australia seems so young by comparison and we are still not independent of Britain! We are lucky though, we get books from the USA and Britain as well as having our own authors and illustrators. Children in Australia cope well because of this. They recognise vocabulary and spelling specific to America as the books are not always changed for Australian audiences in the same way that Australian books are changed for American audiences. An example of this is Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood's book Amy and Louis which won the Book of the Year for Early Childhood in 2007. This is a lovely story about two children who are close friends. They call coee to each other across the park, through holes in the fence and whenever they need each other, until Amy goes to live in America and then Louis misses her and is left wondering if she can hear him as he yells coee to the clouds. This book is published in America as Half a World Away and Louis has had his name changed to Louie, I guess so that Americans know that it rhymes with cooee. I found this out in a library in Boston. I picked up Half a World Away, saw Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood's names and immediately thought, why don't we have this book at home? I opened it and saw a story and illustrations that I recognised and realised that it was our Amy and Louis. Then I went on a search for other well known Australian books. The cover is nearly always changed, if nothing else but spelling. I like the Australian cover of Amy and Louis because it is 'placeless'. They are friends, no matter where they are. The American version shows Louis in Australia and Amy in America, with Amy's home certainly looking more prosperous than Louis'. I like that Americans are proud of their country and that they are very loyal to it, but sometimes it is okay to be accepting of difference and take all that is on offer, like we do, bookwise.