Skip to content
Printer-friendly version
Letter Head: Jack O'Connell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, California Department of Education

February 4, 2008

Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

LABOR HISTORY WEEK

Labor History Week is the first week of April each year. Enacted by legislation in 2002, Education Code (EC) Section 51009 encourages schools “ . . . to commemorate this week with appropriate educational exercises that make pupils aware of the role the labor movement has played in shaping California and the United States.”

I am pleased to join Fabian Núñez, Speaker of the State Assembly, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, the State Building and Construction Trades Council, the United Teachers Los Angeles - AFT 1021, and other members of the Speaker’s Commission on Labor Education, to encourage the State’s public schools to commemorate this occasion.

A growing number of Web sites have teaching and learning resources about the historical achievements of the labor movement, including those listed below. Please disseminate this information as widely as possible.

  • http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/LaborEducation/ (Outside Source) The Speaker's Commission on Labor Education's newly created Web site is designed to give educators up-to-date information and resources about labor education and labor history in California.
  • http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/hstmain.asp The State Board of Education approved Content Standards in History-Social Studies make multiple references to labor or unions. EC Section 60040(c) also calls for study of, “The role and contributions of the entrepreneur and labor in the total development of California and the United States.”
  • http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/publications/index.shtml (Outside Source) Work, Money and Power: Unions in the 21st Century, is a 24-page pamphlet from the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education, explaining what unions are and do, including an overview of labor history. It is a California Department of
    Education approved supplementary history/social science text.
  • http://www.cde.ca.gov/re/pn/rc/ap/pubdisplay.aspx?ID=007095 The California Labor History Map, a visual timeline with more than 250 events in the labor movement, was produced in 2004 by scholars and educators working with the State Library and the Speaker’s Commission on Labor Education. You may order the map for $6.00 (plus
    $1.00 postage included) by contacting CDE Press at 800-995-4099. You may also want to look at the California Labor History Map Web site, which expands the map to more than one thousand events, at http://calpedia.sfsu.edu/calabor/ (Outside Source).
  • http://www.cft.org/about/comm/labor/ (Outside Source) The California Federation of Teachers Web site offers a free 28-page booklet, Labor Education for the K-12 Classroom: Resource Guide for Teachers. The Web site also features a slideshow celebrating California labor history week, and other information about kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) labor curricula.
  • http://cft.org/glwh/index.html (Outside Source) The California Federation of Teachers Web site also features an award winning ten-part video series on the history of the California Labor Movement called, Golden Lands, Working Hands. You may view sample clips and ordering information on-line. The series is available on DVD, with a CD
    of lesson plans and a discussion guide.
  • http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/offices/cbep/ (Outside Source) The Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles support the Collective Bargaining Project, which brings role-playing and simulations about labor history and collective bargaining to middle and high school classrooms, and assists teachers in other districts.
  • http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~safejobs/safe_month/index.html (Outside Source) [Note, the preceding Web address is no longer valid.] The California Coalition for Young Worker Health and Safety is a project led by the Labor and Occupational Health Program at the University of California, Berkeley. It offers materials and activities for Safe Jobs for Youth Month, which follows in May. These activities include contests, curricula, and information packets on worksite safety and health for dissemination to young workers.
  • http://chavez.cde.ca.gov/ModelCurriculum/Intro.aspx The CDE created a model K-12 curriculum on the life and work of César Chávez on the occasion of his birthday, March 31, a State holiday. This site also includes a bibliography and other resources on Cesar Chavez and farm labor issues.
  • http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/ (Outside Source) Calisphere is a Web site of primary sources and more for educators developed by the University of California, Berkeley. Teachers and students are able to see documents and images of California’s labor history from the Gold Rush to the Twentieth Century.

With these exciting materials and instructional possibilities, you should have no difficulty helping your students to celebrate Labor History Week. If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact Carol Smith, Policy Advisor, Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, at 916-319-0577.

Sincerely,

 

JACK O’CONNELL

JO:cs

Download Free Readers