Oklahoma Social Studies TOT.C.1.3

TOT.C.1.3 is a cluster heading. These are the individual standards under it.

• TOT.C.1.3.A

  Analyze the proposition that industrialization and free trade had alienated workers from the fruits of their labors.

• TOT.C.1.3.B

  Describe the idea that private property is exploitative, based on selfishness, and results in inequality.

01

What Students Need to Do

Students explain why some critics argued that factory owners gained from workers' labor while workers lost control over what they made. They examine claims that private ownership and free trade widened inequality, using evidence rather than treating those claims as settled facts.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Given a worker account and a factory profit chart, students can explain the critic's argument and cite evidence for it. They can also say what those sources do not prove, such as whether capitalism alone caused inequality.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may think private property in this argument means a worker's clothes, rather than ownership of factories and other productive assets. They may read alienation as only feeling lonely, or assume any profit proves workers were exploited.

04

How to Assess It

A mill sells cloth for $1,000, pays workers $300, and spends $500 on other costs. Explain why a critic might object to the owner's $200 profit, then name one fact you would need before deciding whether workers were exploited.

1. 01

   Give groups 20 paper tokens: six for wages, ten for costs, four for profit; ask who owns the finished cloth.

2. 02

   Read a paragraph from The Communist Manifesto; write two sentences explaining its claim about factory ownership and one question its authors leave open.

3. 03

   Match claim cards about profits, trade, and worker control to lines from a mill payroll and a worker account; mark unsupported claims.

4. 04

   Use a published T-shirt price breakdown to compare worker pay, materials, and store markup; ask what those figures cannot tell you about exploitation.

• TOT.C.1.6

  Examine the criticisms of the ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

• USH.C.2.1.C

  Analyze the impact of capitalism and laissez-faire policy on business practices, such as monopolies, the characterization of “robber barons” and the role of ind...

• E.C.7

  Analyze the role of entrepreneurs and laborers within a market economy.