Möglicher Unterrichtsverlauf:
1. Arbeitsteilige Gruppenarbeit
Gruppe A - Bildinterpretation
(cf. Discovering The Past Y9)
Gruppe B - Analyse eines
Cartoons (ibd.)
Gruppe C - Textanalyse "The
Happy Whistler" & List of FINES
Gruppe D - Text als Grundlage
eines Interviews: A Memoir of Robert Blincoe, 1832
cf. Gruppe C:
It was only six minutes after the bell of Lanark Mill had rung for the
last time when the door opened and Jack strolled in whistling happily.
The broad smile on his face disappeared when the ugly smell in the
room hit him. He ran to the window and opened it. He took a deep
breath.
Suddenly the overseer came in: "You little devil!", he shouted when
he saw Jack's dirty hands on the window knob. "Shut the window at
once!"
Task
- What did Jack do wrong?
- How was he surely punished?
- What was the position of the workers at that time?
- Do you think the strict rules had any effect on the workers?
cf. Gruppe D:
Blincoe heard the burring sound ... and smelt the fumes of the oil...
The moment he entered the doors, the noise horrified him and the
smell seemed unbearable. The job first given to him was to pick
up the loose cotton that fell upon the floor. Apparently, nothing
could be easier ... although he was much terrified by the ... noise
of
the machinery.
Many ... had by this time been more or less injured by the machinery.
Some had skin scraped off the knuckles, clean to the bone
... others
a finger crushed, a joint or two nipped off ...
When his turn to suffer came, the fore-finger of his left hand was
caught and almost before he could cry out, off was the first joint...
he clapped the squashed joint streaming with blood to the finger,
and ran off to ... the surgeon, who ... put the parts together again and
sent him back to the mill.
To lift the apprentices up by their ears, shake them violently
and then
throw them down upon the floor with ... fury, was one of the inhuman
sports in Litton Mill... Frequently has Blincoe been thus treated,
till
he thought his ears were torn from his head... Another ... consisted in
filing apprentices' teeth.
Blincoe declared that he had often been forced, on a cold winter's
day, to work naked, except his trousers, and loaded with two half
hundred-weights slung behind him, hanging one at each shoulder.
It is a fact... that the most brutal ... have been in the habit
of ... forcing
them to eat dirty pieces of candle, to lick up tobacco spit,
to open
theirs for the filthy wretches to spit into.
Annotations
fume
- Dampf, Dämpfe
horrify
- leave in horror, entsetzen
unbearable - unerträglich
apparently - obviously, offenbar
terrify
- shock badly
scrape off - abkratzen von
knuckle
- Knöchel
crush
- squash, zerquetschen
joint
- Gelenk, Glied
nip off
- abknicken, abzwicken
apprentice - trainee, Lehrling
fury
- anger, Wut
frequently - often
declare - here:
explain
naked
- without any clothes
sling
- umschlingen
habit
- Angewohnheit
lick up
- auflecken
tobacco spit - ausgespuckter Tabak
filthy
- dirty
wretch
- poor devil, armer Wicht
2. Präsentation der Gruppen-Ergebnisse
durch Gruppensprecher im Plenum
(Ergebnisse werden stichwortartig
an der Tafel festgehalten)
3. Erarbeitung eines Posters mit Forderungen für mehr Childrens' Rights
oder
3. Rollenspiel: Die SchülerInnen versetzen
sich anhand ihrer Rollenkarten
in
die Situation von Kindern,
die in den Mills arbeiten müssen, und klagen ihr Leid.
4. (fak.) Vergleich zwischen Höhe der
Strafen und Löhnen
zurück zur Themenseite "Industrial Revolution"