Teaching about slavery

In the Sunday edition of the paper (July 7) there was an article about “How to Teach Slavery” and the mistakes many educators have made. Most educators I have known do a great job teaching about difficult topics, but we can always do better. I teach college sociology, and I have found very little about human trafficking in the texts. Slavery has been around since Biblical times with different degrees of brutality and destruction of families, but what many educators don’t know is that slavery is still alive and well on the planet and the numbers of enslaved is the “highest in human history.”

If you want to teach about slavery, begin the lesson teaching about current human trafficking, both in the sex industry and other types of labor. For more information, just Google it. More importantly, get in touch with Operation Underground Railroad, which is a non-profit organized by our local law enforcement officer Tim Ballard. They rescue children sold into the slave trade. I have donated there but also check out “Generate Hope” a residential facility in San Diego for women who were slaves in the sex industry. Our family has donated to their ministry for many years.

Let’s teach youth the truth, and this can best be done by focusing on those fighting slavery in this new millennium. The porn and prostitution industries, driven by internet access to all, have benefited from slavery and if we don’t teach that, we are ignoring the real face of slavery. JIM SHINN El Centro