Social reform is, I believe, one of the most under covered subject in K-12 curriculum. The one exception to this MAY be the Civil Rights Movement, but I think it also often cut to short.  There are so many things to cover in history that reform just seems to get the short end of the stick.  I think that this is an injustice to our kids, especially kids today who seem to be entitled to everything.  Most of them don’t know what it is like to suffer, or go hungry.  Honestly, neither do I.  I have no concept of what it must have been like to live in a tenement, go hungry, play in filthy streets and never see the country side.  I know that this is a very generalized statement, and that there are kids out there living in poverty and distress, but I find myself asking if their situation really compares to the lives of kids before people like Jane Addams.

There is one chapter in my textbook that covers reformers and it covers everything from prison and mental health reform through the first attempts and suffrage and women’s rights.  I found this chapter awkward to teach because it seems to have just been squeezed in there, and doesn’t really fit, however, I think that it is important for our students to understand the spirit of reform and the need for reform.  I discuss the issues covered in the chapter briefly and then I moved onto an issue, not specifically covered in the chapter, but that my students would relate to easier.  The issue of children’s rights, and wow did I get in over my head.  There was so much information and I was trying to figure out how to organize it into a short 2 or 3 day lesson.  In reflection I don’t believe that my students actually received much from the lesson.  Today gave me a direction to take that lesson and a focus to share with my students.  Even though Jane Addams and the Hull House happened after the time period that we study, it is still a great example of juvenile reform.  I’m very excited to take this information and turn it into an engaging lesson for my students.