Child labor in the early twentieth century?

[marlan43]

• How you think the work affected the children’s health, education, and future (address working conditions, hours children may have spent at work, and amount of free time children had for school or play)
• Why you think the children’s parents allow them to work at the jobs
• Why employers might have wanted to hire children instead of adults for certain types of work
• How child labor in general may have affected future generations of Americans
• Laws you think should be passed to address child labor

[ruddy]

I have done a newspaper round for several years. Every day get up at 04.00 AM, deliver the papers before 06.30 AM. Nobody forced me to it. My parents said: okay. If you want more than just pocket allowance, you got to work for it. So I did. Like many kids in western countries do. With full approval of their parents.

[winfrid12]

Not quite as bad as child labour in some African and far eastern countries at the present time.

[zadok]

In the early 20th century, completing high school was not all that common. Besides needing to take a test to graduate to high school fromthe 8th grade, education was focused more on the performance of everyday tasks that would lead to some basic reading skills and enough math and science to equip you to trade for your goods equitably as a shopkeeper or a factory worker. Kids were much more likely to marry earlier, and college education was mostly something the privileged engaged in. Getting a job was the sought after end to an education, and manual labor was one type of job that did not require much of it, so boys went to school on the average much less than they do today, and because they were not expected to be wage earners, girls might and might not ever finish school, particularly past the 8th grade. My grandmother, for instance, could not attend high school unless her stepbrother did, and he never passed the 8th grade test, so she couldn't go, and got married instead. There are many examples of people from that time making their lives on as little as a 3rd grade education.

Given the difference in attitude, all the rest of your questions flow naturally. Just follow the ripples.