Branded - Eric Walters [11]
Six cents an hour…seventy-two cents a day…six days a week…to earn $4.32 a week. That’s what this thirteen-year-old girl gets to make the shoes that THEY endorse…that YOU wear…Just think about it the next time you slip on those shoes.
The little girl with sad eyes on the assembly line was replaced by shots of kids about my age playing sports. There were kids playing basketball and another group of kids playing football, and there was a shot of a whole schoolyard filled with kids.
The closing text said, She works like a slave so that you can play.
The clip faded and the lights came back on. I became aware of the logo on the shoes I was wearing. Thank goodness I was wearing a different brand today. Not that I didn’t own a pair of those shoes, but they weren’t my favorites.
“Comments?” Mr. Roberts asked.
“That was incredibly sad,” Rachel said.
“That poor girl.”
“That isn’t much of a life…does she really work that hard?”
“Six days a week,” Mr. Roberts said.
He paused. “At least that’s what it said on the screen. By a show of hands, how many people think it’s true?”
Most of the hands in the class went up.
“How many think it’s just made up?”
he asked.
A couple of hands went up—sort of.
“And how many people, really, don’t know if it’s true or not?”
Now more than half the hands, including mine, went up.
“That may be the cautious response,”
he said. “Those who believe it is not true, please explain the reason for your doubts.”
“There’s no way kids that young work in factories,” Josh said. “That’s illegal.”
“It’s illegal in this country,” Mr. Roberts said. “We have child labor laws, but most developing countries either have no such laws or allow them to be ignored.”
“But still,” Josh continued. “Nobody would actually be paid six cents an hour… would they?”
“They would,” Mr. Roberts said. “Now those who think this clip portrays the truth, please explain why.”
“I’ve seen that clip before,” Julia said.
“And others like it.”
“I’ve heard about that sort of thing as well,” Courtney agreed. “Everybody knows those companies use sweatshops and child labor.”
“And you know this how?” Mr. Roberts asked.
“It’s just that ever ybody knows it,”
Courtney said, “sort of like how the sky is blue and—”
“Actually the sky isn’t blue,” Mr. Roberts said. “Any other explanations to support the truth of those statements?”
“Sports stars do get huge amounts of money for endorsements, and those guys do wear that brand of shoes,” Oswald said.
“So we know that part of it is true.”
“And that company does make lots of money,” I added.
“True enough. So we know that some of what that YouTube clip contains is true.
But you all should know that the best way to lie is to tell half the truth.”
“And if you’re doing that, you should probably include information that we know is true so that we assume the rest is true,”
I said.
“Exactly, Ian, exactly!” Mr. Roberts said.
“So, are you saying that that stuff isn’t true?” Oswald asked.
“I’m not saying that,” said Mr. Roberts.
“Are you saying it’s true then?”
“I’m not saying that either. Can anyone give me another reason to believe that this clip is true?” Mr. Roberts asked. “Ian, any thoughts?”
“Well, I’m willing to bet that all of the numbers, all of the facts are true.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because i f they weren’t t rue, the company would sue or have the clip taken off YouTube,” I said.
“That is good critical thinking, but as we all know, it’s not wise to believe everything.
Especially today.” He paused. “In the olden days—when I was younger—information was generally printed in reference books like an encyclopedia.”
“Not stone tablets?” Oswald asked.
Everybody laughed, including Mr.
Roberts.
“We had paper. Something being written on paper didn’t guarantee that it was true or that it wasn’t biased, but it was generally written by some sort of expert. It’s a lot different today.”
“Any idiot can put something up on Wikipedia,