A Think Tank: Exploring Strategies for Classroom Teachers to Introduce the Topic of Human Sex Trafficking
Jo Beth Gonzalez, MFA, PhD | September 20 | 4:00-5:00 PM
Topic: Art, Programming | Knowledge Level: Intermediate, Advanced | Location: Room 2584
This session is intended for participants to discuss arts-based human sex trafficking awareness resources for classroom teachers that are appropriate for different grade levels. Resources include, among others, materials, guest speakers, and methods. Using the arts to explore issues of social justice is central to this session. Between 2012 and present, groups of teens from Bowling Green High School have engaged in the process of writing and performing a theatrical production, Lily’s Wings, for young audiences that draws attention to the dangers of sex trafficking of minors. This process is serving two purposes. First, crafting, performing, and joining audience talk-backs develops awareness and empowers the students and teachers involved. Second, viewing the performance empowers audiences. These audiences may be comprised not only of students, but parents and educators as well. Besides teaching students about the issue of human sex trafficking, presenting Lily’s Wings in the school setting is a provocative way to engage teachers with the curriculum. This discussion-oriented session will revolve around questions aimed at identifying and evaluating ways to build arts-based instructional methods that benefit educators, students, and by extension, parents.
Presentation Objectives:
· Discuss which is more impactful to students, a live performance or a filmed version of a play, intended to draw awareness of the dangers of human sex trafficking of minors
· Explore the potential value and degree of need for either type of presentation to be followed by a talk-back by experts
· Explain which U.S. states mandate teachers to learn about human sex trafficking and in what ways
· Describe challenges educators might face showing a filmed version of the play without the presence of an expert and ways to combat those challenges
· Discuss what a package of the filmed version of the play might contain to assist teachers introducing the topic to students
· Explain how such a package can be marketed to educators