I know several students who have probably violated federal labor laws. Is it more correct to say their parents violated federal labor laws? Their uncle violated federal labor laws? How does one tell parents that the hard work they are teaching their child to do is illegal? How do you tell them that even though their child is capable of working like an adult they should not help support their family? What about students who stand a good chance of not passing their high school requirements and are encouraged or pressured or even told they need to help out in the family business or to earn money to support the family? Are they somehow bad?
It seems to me that we either accept a multicultural society and the values that other family may hold dearer than school or we stop turning a blind eye to all the infractions and illegal activity that is going on. I have known students eleven years of age and older either missing school to work on construction sites and even roofing – a real federal no-no – or falling impossibly behind in their work due to after school jobs and a lack of support. These were male students. I have known female students eleven years of age and older missing school to babysit younger siblings or who go home to full housekeeping, cooking, and childcare responsibilities and falling impossibly behind in their work due to a lack of time and exhaustion. Would we prefer these families seek out public assistance or continue to use every means possible to make a living? We were short-sighted to think that just because we opened our borders these families would easily adopt an American lifestyle without sacrifice.
Some of these family situations remind me of how the depression must have been: children doing the work of adults to help the family survive; boys acting like men and not wanting to stay in school where it was hard and seemed pointless but rather wanting to go out and earn and work like a man. With families being the priority and looking after each other more important than a diploma, since work was waiting that had no prerequisites, it makes sense that some children are needed at home.
The plight of child farm workers is very scary: dangerous, health-threatening, sometimes horrible work where immigrant participants are taken sickening advantage of. Some of these families need the income. What would happen to them if they didn’t have those extra hands? What should our attitude be? In a perfect world the job boss would provide a safe, school-type haven for the children during the day. Parents would never be in a position to need the help of young children in the fields. Children would all earn high school diplomas and have opportunities beyond the onion fields. In a perfect world, the only crying over onions would be when they are sliced.
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I believe that a family's first commitment, following that to their God, should be to the family itself. Unfortunately, that occasionally means that older children must take on work to assist with the family's survival rather than focus solely on their own educations. When a child is taught to value hard work, and to desire an education, the temporary delay caused by these events may interrupt their "schooling", but not the "learning". The goal as educators should be to help these students fulfill both needs.
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