Global Activism in an American School

When twelve-year-old Iqbal Masih, former child laborer in a Pakistani carpet factory came to Boston in 1994 to receive Reebok’s Youth in Action Award, he asked to meet youth his own age. Reebok selected Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, Massachusetts because of its Human Rights curriculum and reputation for student activism. Iqbal’s inspirational visit and untimely murder five months later, on his return to Pakistan, inspired the middle school students to start a grassroots activist campaign to build a school in his memory. Due to the campaign’s success Broad Meadows was chosen as a pilot school for Operation Day’s Work, USA, (ODW, USA) an American adaptation of Norway’s highly effective youth global social action program. ODW has been operating successfully as an after school program at Broad Meadows since 1996. Global Activism in an American School: From Empathy to Action analyzes the evolution of the Kid’s Campaign and Operation Day’s Work at Broad Meadows. It demonstrates how teacher facilitator, Ron Adams, in conjunction with his students created a democratic after school community and provides teachers with unique field tested strategies they could use to promote student activism at the global or local level. Twenty percent of the royalties for this book will be donated to GoodWeave International.

Linda Kantor Swerdlow writes with the passion of an educator who appreciates the value of intercultural learning and its relationship to youth activism. As the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Clinton Administration, I brought Operation Days Work (ODW) to America with the support of the Norwegian Government. Impressed by the overwhelming popularity of aid programs in Scandinavia, I had discovered that engaging students in work to raise money for real development programs had inculcated a lifetime commitment to poverty alleviation. This book is a moving account of the benefits to young people and to our globe of programs like ODW., Being globally competent requires that students are able to take action and apply what they are learning to improve conditions both locally and globally. Linda Kantor Swerdlow’s timely book, Global Activism in an American School, studies a program that develops this agency as well as empathy in our students., Igniting a student’s voice can have both incredibly positive and impressive consequences. When this is combined with a call to civic action, communities can be transformed. In Mr. Adams’ class, room 109, this has happened time and time again to the benefit of the local and international community resulting in children’s lives being changed. In Global Activism in an American School: From Empathy to Action, Linda Kantor Swerdlow provides a detailed account of how this happens repeatedly., As the world confronts the greatest mass movement of people, including children, in history, Linda Kantor Swerdlow’s Global Activism in an American School: From Empathy to Action is both timely and a must read for all those concerned about the welfare of children and our basic humanity. The book is a compelling narrative about the challenge of ensuring all children have a right to education and a life of dignity. One cannot read this work and come away unchanged.

Linda Kantor Swerdlow is an associate professor of education in the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Drew University. Her specialization is history, social studies, and global education. She has written articles in her field, presented at national and international conferences, and organized a regional conference on Teaching about Global Child Labor and Human Trafficking.