Perspiration Factories: Should we be more Aware of what we Wear?

Sweatshop labor is a topic not many Americans want to address. We just want to buy our shirts and wear them too. We don’t care about the origins of our fabrics, but just like every issue, this one has two sides too. The decision to support the existence of sweatshops or to stand against them is not only an extremely hard one but one that we are not even sure can be done. After reading Barboza's article and Kristof's article there are advantages and disadvantages to both sides of the argument. (Barboza arguing against sweatshops, and Kristof arguing for sweatshops.) While we all disagree with the treatment and conditions of sweatshops, we are more aware of the importance that some children have jobs so that they will not starve to death. In other words, we can see both sides of the story.

The image in American minds of sweatshops is a run-down, hot basement passing for a factory in some far-off, impoverished village. But the reality is much different for many who work in the sweatshops, especially children. To the workers, the sweatshop is the much preferred alternative to working in the fields, and it is the only option for many struggling residents. Not are sweatshops the only the best work options but most child need to work in sweatshops to be able to eat.

 So should one go as far as to boycott sweatshop-produced goods? We suppose that depends on your stance in the sweatshop issue, but that’s a decision we are not going to make for you. But we can tell you what will likely happen. The sweatshop-produced shirts will still sell. Even if the origins of our threads are a Google search away on our iPhones, the shirts will still sell. Like we said earlier, we just want to buy our shirts and wear them too. We don’t expect this blog to make activists out of any of our readers, but next time you see “Made in ______” will you think twice about that blank?

Memories of Reading from Three College Students

Learning how to read is an important part of growing up. There is not a certain formula for the correct way to learn, it depends on the person learning. Everyone has different people influencing their learning and do not necessarliy learn how to read in the same envrionments. Heather, Mike, and Dylan, all college students at OSU describe their personal experiences with learning how to read and their earliest memories of reading.

Heather:

My earliest memories of reading are from reading bed time stories with my mom or dad before I went to sleep. Every night before I went to bed they would have me pick out a book for them to read to me and then we would work on reading through it together. Both of my parents were patient and encouraging during this time. I can also remember back in kindergarten when they were teaching us to read they would bring in blow up letters that would have names and stories behind who they were. A new letter would show up each week in a mysterious way. I can remember looking forward to meeting a new letter each week. It was a fun and exciting way to get us interested in reading. Another thing that helped me learn to read was watching Sesame Street. I loved this show! I remember them teaching a letter and number a day. This show was a big help when it came to learning all of the different letters and the sounds that they make.

Dylan:

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about learning how to read would be staying the night with my grandparents. My grandma would always read to me before it was time to go to bed. I don’t really remember exact books, I just remember big pictures with very few words on a page. After several times of reading to me she then started making me attempt to read and if I couldn’t say the word she would pronounce it for me and make me repeat it until I said it right. After staying the night with her time and time again I then started getting better and eventually learned how to read.

Mike:

I don't believe reading is an act that is taught; it is a discovery. The language of reading is all around us, writing is just the convenience. We all naturally discover the essence of reading, it is only in school that we learn the mechanics. My process of learning the mechanics of reading was one school-facilitated in pre-kindergarden, but I can remember the summer I discovered reading. It was the summer after 1st grade. It wasn't three months of page after page, rather I would read my father's Sports Illustrated magazines when I'd be in his bathroom. That summer I learned the importance of the word, the vitality of literacy, and the beauty of writing that can sometimes be surpass reality. That summer I fell in love with reading, and I like to think S.I. was my teacher.

All three of us remember a how important the learning process was to us. Some of us learned from  important figure in our lives, others learned or discovered to read on their own, honestly though the important factor in all of our stories is that not only did we learn how to recognize symbols that stand for certain terms, but that we all gained the knowlegde of how to relate to other through reading, how to gain knowlegde on our own, and how to dive into a new world of information just because we learned to read.