Teaching Resource: WTO Trade Winds

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Subject: Teaching Resource: WTO Trade Winds Project

Teaching Resource:  WTO Trade Winds Project
*Thanks to MichaelP and Janet M Eaton for sending me this one!!
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Teachers stir up interest in WTO talks
Background and Related Info.

by Lisa Pemberton-Butler
Seattle Times South bureau

Over the past few weeks, Renton High School teacher Dutch Day has tried
several tactics to engage his students in the upcoming World Trade
Organization meeting.

He assigned newspaper articles for them to read about the trade talks,
hoping to spark discussions on current events. He worked with other
teachers, coordinating lesson plans and research reports about economics
and international trade.

But most of Day's students didn't seem interested until a speaker
critical of the organization told them that the World Trade 
Organization (WTO) requires governments to accept products from 
countries that permit sweatshop labor. Some students then said they 
wanted to take part in protests.

The Geneva-based WTO - which resolves international trade disputes - is
igniting trade conversations in classrooms across the country, but
especially in the Puget Sound area.

The four-day Seattle meeting, which begins Nov. 30, will bring to Seattle
trade ministers from 135 countries - - as well as thousands of protesters
and international media.

In addition to visiting classrooms, WTO opponents are encouraging
students to skip school on Nov. 30, the day protesters say they will 
rally in the streets for "fair trade."

Students from the University of Washington and other colleges, and at
least 10 area high schools - including Roosevelt, Garfield, Mercer Island
and Vashon Island - say they will participate.

Jason Adams, organizer with the Workers and Students for a Walkout
Network, said he doesn't know how many students might join the protest,
but he said some teachers and classified school workers who belong to
unions plan to take the day off, and are helping to spread the word on
campuses.

Presenting other views of the debate are various programs funded through
the Seattle Host Organization, the nonprofit group planning the
conference.

Among its activities:

  * The WTO Trade Winds Project consists of 10 case-study lesson plans
that are basically short-story problems about real people and the
challenges they face in international trade.

The lessons were used in 10 middle and high schools in Seattle Public
Schools, and 10 middle and high schools in the Highline District. Most
schools completed the 10-week unit last week.

"What I've been finding is that every teacher who uses this material uses
it differently," said Mary Bourguignon, a public-policy consultant who
created the curricula.

Students involved in the project will meet tomorrow at Seattle Center for
several mock trials on real trade conflicts.

Bourguinon said she has received mostly positive feedback about the
$55,000 program, partly paid for by the Port of Seattle and King County.
 "The only criticism I've heard is that we haven't taken on controversial
issues," she said. "We tried so hard not to make it biased, because
(otherwise) we wouldn't be credible."
  * The Digital Divide will bring together students from the United
States, Japan, China, Mexico and South Africa through a televised
interactive forum to discuss the emergence of e-commerce and its impact
on
the WTO and trade issues. It will take place during the WTO convention.
  * WTO in the Classroom is a K-12 project in which University of
Washington students - "WTO Student Ambassadors" - are visiting about 50
classrooms from Tacoma to Seattle and on the Eastside to organize mock
WTO trials on the sale of American Fuji apples in Japan.

They divide classes into four groups: WTO judges, U.S. officials,
Japanese government officials and the media.

A senior government and language-arts class at Nathan Hale High School in
North Seattle last week had mock trials. After listening to the arguments
for both sides, one group of judges ruled in favor of Japan; the other
supported the United States.

Mary Welch, 17, who was assigned to be a Japanese official, said she felt
the UW student's remarks seemed "pro-WTO," and there wasn't enough time
to prepare for the mock trials.

But classmate Brian Lindahl, 17, said he thought the activity was
impartial.

"I liked the presentation a lot; they knew what they were talking about,"
he said. "They kind of let us run the whole thing. They had the answers,
and that was great." Lindahl said his class also has listened to
presentations from a WTO proponent and some WTO critics, adding that he
thought a few things opponents said against the WTO were "blatant lies."

Renton High's Day said he thinks the WTO is an ambiguous topic that is
difficult enough to understand for adults, let alone students. Teachers
need to explain that it's more than money and politics, he said.

"We have to get them emotionally," Day said.

Teachers who are incorporating the WTO into classroom discussions agree
it's controversial, but also a great way to localize a global debate.

"Not to use the WTO as a vehicle to get them to understand world trade
issues would be nuts," Day said.

Teachers say the difficulty is making sure that the lessons are fair.

Day said he thinks most media are covering only the sides that support
the
WTO. The opposing views that make headlines generally are about protests,
conservative politician Pat Buchanan or the "lunatic fringe" that
students
can't relate to, he said.

"I wanted to get people who have the alternative view," Day said. "I
wanted to counteract that (media coverage) and have the students
recognize that it's a valid, rationalized view."

Tico Almeida, a recent Duke University graduate, visited Renton High last
week to talk about the changes he thinks are needed in the WTO.

The 22-year-old told students he has visited Central American villages
where women, and sometimes children, were forced to work under gunpoint
to sew brand-name clothing and shoes.

He said workers are underpaid and often required to put in 12 or 16 hours
a day, using dangerous equipment and breathing toxic fumes.

He said the WTO enforces rules that countries must accept products from
those companies, but it doesn't require companies to improve their
working conditions or use environmentally safe practices.

". . . I don't think trade is a bad thing," Almeida told students. "We
just want a different kind of trade, with a different set of rules."

Student Vina Sayavanh, 17, said she was touched by his stories.

"You'd imagine that going to work would feel just like prison," she said.
"It's outrageous. . . . I hope that maybe protests or the march will make
officials think because there's a lot of people that think this is wrong
and they should reform the WTO."

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Cooperative Community Life-Long Learning Centers (CCL-LLCs) are 
emerging from the rapidly growing homeschooling and autodidact 
movements. They are the foundation for a radically different society.
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