school question

[meggo]

okay i'm learnin my kids about globalization and the economy tomorrow... and trying to learn myself along the way!

so i think i understand the whole NAFTA thing now....

my question is - we don't have an agreement with places like china, taiwan, and so on... so is it just cheaper in general to make stuff there, and that's why we do it? [and by we i just mean the companies in canada and the u.s.]

also - oh dear what was my other question.... - is this new? not NAFTA, i know that was [i think] around 1990, but the importing from places like southeast asia? b/c i'm pretty sure that in the pre-WWII days, most of the stuff was made here.

can anyone shed a bit of light here while keeping it simple? pretend you're talking to a 15 year old [who may be in their first year of learning english].

[MoMack]

there is the WTO agreements and other types like that.. if I didn't feel so stupid right now I'd know. oh yes, GATT (general agreement on tariffs and trade), it came out of WWII I believe...

And you get into the G-7 and all sorts of other deals.

Check on Google and some of it should come up, or check Chomsky and/or the Council of Canadians and you'll get a good break down.

If I hadn't just worked 12 hours and hit the gym I could help more...

[StoneMtn]

My understanding (and I am no political scientist so I am open to being corrected) is that the reason we import from such countries as you have suggested is due to the low cost of their labour.

My cynical opinion, as a one-time philosophy student, is that multi-national and trans-national corporations go into less developed countries entirely for the purpose of exploiting a labour market that they could not possibly find in the west. In such markets they can employ adults at wages that would be criminal here, and children under circumstances that they could never be employed here. It also allows them to avoid environmental laws that exist in the west and which serve to increase cost, as we have pesky little situations in which companies are forced to dispose of waste in a safe manner and other things. There are also workplace safety issues, human rights, benefits, and other matters that we have here that serve to increase costs, that can be conveniently ignored in the developing world.

This, of course, allows those of us residing in this hemisphere the luxury of buying items at a fraction of the cost of what they would be if manufactured locally.

I leave it to you to decide how much, if any, of the above is appropriate for a 15 year old learning English, and I leave it to you to phrase it as you wish. I also welcome comments from anyone who feels they are more knowlegeable in these areas than I.

[meggo]

right on... thank you... this is basically the understanding that i have at the moment too... i've been feverishly shooting emails back and forth with my dad as well. he reads lots

i find it all quite interesting, and i think [hope] the kids will, too.

[scottieking]

First, make sure they have a good grip on import and export. Tariffs are also key to understanding this. I'd start as well by making sure they understand why countries would want to trade in the first place.

Next up, ask them to check their clothes, calculators, book bags and see where they are from. Why so little from inside of Canada?

The real reason we love to do business with Asia (aside from cheap labour) is because right now they need us more than we need them. We run a trade surplus (read:export more than import) to a great deal of these countries. Free trade isn't something we are interested in with Asia. We'd rather just belong to APEC and control things from that aspect.

Google Globalization Lesson plans for more inspiration. There's tons out there?

hey meggo, better week this week?

[meggo]

hey scottie! so far, better week this week. starting off healthy is a big plus.

i have googled the lesson plan thing, and they spat out a nice chunk of info with questions... it's just a little bit advanced perhaps... so i like your idea of breaking it down into these chunks first...

thanks again scottie for your words last week. they helped this little spazoid climb off the ledge [just a figurative ledge, of course ]... the first year teacher jitters i guess!

you may be hearing from me again... you're a good buddy!

[Blane]

A good first book to read on the topic (though at about 500 pages it's a lot for teaching) is Naomi Klein's No Logo. It takes the case of 3 transnationals (Shell, McDonalds and Nike) and really looks at their cases in detail. It's a bit elementary for those who've already read a lot on the topic, but for teens or first year university students, it's probably a great read.

[bokonon]

some organizations to check out would be www.adbusters.org ,your local public interest research group, or the ontario public interest research group, the international forum on globalization at www.ifg.org , and the council of canadians at www.canadians.org and the canadian centre for policy alternatives at www.policyalternatives.ca . don't forget to check out the links pages on these websites for even more sites. some good books are no logo (which is old) or fences and windows by naomi klein, the corporation by joel bakan (which is also a movie which likely has public perfomance copyright licence which means it legally can be shown in your classroom), hegemony or survival by noam chomsky and the no nonsense guide to globalization and of course michael moore's work, i highly recommend the film roger and me, but there is also bowling for columbine and fahrenheit 911 (and canadian bacon too!) also his books would all be at least partially relevant and are easy entertaining reads and have many leads to other sources in the bibliography pages. for magazines try, nexus, utne reader, adbusters.

[meggo]

thanks again, folks... the globalization lesson trainwrecked, i think the language was a little too advanced. poops, oh well. we're going to need some more time for this one!

[purple foot]

i live adbusters.

[mark tonin]

Hey there meggo,

Glad to read that you are feeling healthier this week.

In my experience, globalization issues, international trade concepts, etc. are tough ones to get across to (younger) high school students. Whenever I think I've simplified things enough, I find that I need to do so even more. To be truthful, I've never been able to present this type of material to my class in a way that grabs their interest as much as I wish it would.

And don't worry about the train wreck ... I've had plenty of those in my teaching career ... think of it as a learning experience.

Perhaps try to create some interest in this topic by using a really simple example.

An example:

You go to the store to buy a shirt. You have two choices. One is a shirt made in Canada that is priced at $20. Another is a shirt that is made in China that is priced at $10. The two shirts are basically the same. (I would also bring in 2 shirts to class that are the same if I could, or two of anything. Just make up a pretend tag for each one, one that says "Made in Canada" and one that says "Made in China". I find that props help to hold attention.)

Sample Questions:

Why would the shirt that is made in China have a lower price?

Which shirt would you buy? Why?

Can you think of any situation that would make you buy the higher-priced shirt? (e.g. suppose the reason that the Chinese shirt was cheaper was that they used child labour? What I might do is make up a horrific example of extreme working conditions to illustrate the point.)

Suppose that your dad works for the Canadian shirt factory, and it may close down because not enough people are buying Canadian shirts ... would that influence the shirt that you bought in any way?

Should our government do anything to stop the Canadian shirt factory from shutting down? What could they do?

-----

Meggo, the above is just me thinking out loud. I'll be doing some of this with a Grade 10 Business class later on this year so your question helped me to once again think about this issue and how I will present it to some 15 year-olds. Hopefully you'll come up with something for this unit, and if you do and it works really well, let me know. I hope some of the above helps in some way.

Good luck!

Peace, Mark

[meggo]

thanks mark!

when i broached (sp?) the topic, the kids seemed to have the basic idea of the cheap labour in other countries, and this is why we import. but, then i had an article for them (which i thought was good) but i think the language of the article was too hard. i put them in groups and assigned each group one or two questions that they were supposed to share with the class, but they ended up doing a poopy job and i think that was why, the article was too difficult. they like having answers spoon-fed to them, and additionally, many of them are just learning english, which puts an interesting and very challenging twist on things... aaanyhoo... it's actually just meant to be a one-class sorta deal, and i think it's impossible to go thru it in 75 minutes. i was thinking of devoting a bit more time but we've got the literacy test for the next 2 days, then friday, then next week is our last week together and they switch over to civics... soooo... i may leave the globalization up to somebody else! too bad though, i find it so interesting...

thanks for your help!

meg

[PalacePrincess]

purplefoot, that pic is freakin' classic.

and meggo, maybe this is better suited to a p'm, but fuckit, i love & miss you baby! hope to see you down for nov.13th (dd & harvard mouse on your old stompin' grounds) or at least christmas!!!

*mmmmmmwaaaaa*

[meggo]

luv you too beautiful!! not sure about the 13th but hoping to see YOU in the Otown for my 25th and some naughty-ness...