Life on the Prairie
Emily
Emily, her beliefs so strong,
Knew to bully others, was wrong.
She wanted no friend, left behind.
Please note this blog posts the first and third weeks
of the month.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Life on the Prairie
Prairie Girls
Emily
I’m
Emily Ealy, and I’m excited. My mum’s sisters are coming on the train to visit!
They will attend the last day of school activities with my family. In their
letter they spoke of a lady named Mother Jones they heard speak in Chicago.
Their letter said she worked to make coal mining safer. I’m anxious to see my
aunts and glad they will be here for the last day of school. I wonder if my
teacher will give me a souvenir booklet.
The End of the
School Year
By Collette
The end of the school year was both
hectic and exciting. At our high school students might be exempt from finals if
they had a high percentage in the class and good attendance. The office wanted
the names of those students on the same day as seniors’ grades needed to be
turned in to determine if they graduated. To say this was a little stressful
for teachers was an understatement because there was often a glitch.
That glitch was entering and extracting
grades from each teacher’s computer. Because the entire district used computers
to enter grades, there could be a problem with so many people using them at the
same time. Some teachers solved the problem by simply cutting off grades early.
Teachers were charged to have “meaningful activities” the last few days of
school. That translated as no movies were to be shown. I spent years coming up
with “meaningful ideas” for those days.
I stayed late at school at the end of
the year so I could have my grades posted, room ready for the summer and time
to say farewell to my colleagues before summer began. There was always a flurry
of meetings at the end, too. I had one principal who would tell us how many
days we had before it was time to return. Despite his remark, it was difficult
not to feel excited that I had those few days at home.
Unions and Labor Leaders
Unions and
Labor Leaders
By ColletteFollowing the Civil War and the tremendous influx of immigrants arriving on American soil, the population tripled, as did the need for workers. The coal industry was one of the first to unionize because of dangerous and horrible working conditions. The first union for coal miners was called the National Labor Union, and its existence was short-lived. The largest labor union was the Order of the Knights of St. Crispin. It was followed by the Knights of Labor in 1869. However, it was the American Federation of Labor formed in 1886 under the leadership of Samuel Gompers that proved the most successful.
The coal industry was known for its low wages,
hazardous working conditions, ethnicity and difficulty to organize. Basically,
those who fought for miners’ rights organized the workers mine by mine. There
were leaders in each mining region, but one of the more interesting leaders was
Mary Harris Jones. Emily might have come into contact with her, and she would
have been interested in Mother Jones’s passion: ending child labor in the coal
mining industry and factories.
The following provides interesting information about
labor unions and leaders.
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