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Child Labor Laws
The Archangels Say to Prioritize Children
If you know my background, you know I’m a children’s advocate. I’ve been hearing more and more about states changing the child labor laws in this country, and I’ve been looking into it, wondering why anyone would remove or change laws passed for the purpose of protecting kids. My understanding is that there are too many job openings that are not being filled. The changes proposed include lowering the working age to fourteen, in some cases, as well as lifting some safety measures.
I taught middle school for decades, so I am quite familiar with kids from 11–14. If you asked me if they could do an adult’s job, I’d probably answer that it would depend on the job. That’s not my biggest concern, however. Children are taught to pay attention to what adults tell them, and that can make them vulnerable at times, especially if the adult is in a position of authority.
Not only do most kids hesitate to argue with adults, but they’re naïve when it comes to their rights, and they don’t usually concern themselves with safety. Many are fearless and therefore, careless. This leads me to believe that there are a multitude of ways they could be exploited in the workforce, which is why labor laws were put into effect in the first place, back in 1938. Even with labor laws in place last year, there was a…
