Global Activism in an American School: From Empathy to Action [Hardcover]

When twelve-year-old Iqbal Masih, former child laborer in a Pakistani carpet factory came to Boston in 1994 to receive Reeboks 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. Iqbals 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 campaigns success Broad Meadows was chosen as a pilot school for Operation Days Work, USA, (ODW, USA) an American adaptation of Norways 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 Kids Campaign and Operation Days 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 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.

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 Daysl#