Newt Gingrich created a firestorm when he proposed that students be put to work cleaning their schools. He stated that so many poor families have no one in the family who works and children need to learn the value of earning a paycheck. While Gingrich was correct about the attitudes of some poor people, he pushed a stereotype that poor people don’t know what work is. In fact, many poor people work two or even three jobs to keep their families afloat.
Lost in the discussion is whether student employment is really all that valuable in the first place. The first article I wrote for Milwaukee Magazine (“Late Nights in Fast Foods,” March 1989) outlined violations of child labor laws in the fast food industry. I found students working incredibly long hours late into the night. Students who worked these hours often missed school or slept through classes when they did attend school.
Students didn’t learn the value of a dollar. Few saved money for college. Instead they spent wages on clothes, music, and even drugs and alcohol. Teenage girls were hit on by twenty-something assistant managers who were hardly the role models we want for our children.
To be fair, I also met fast food employers who put the interests of such teen employees first, especially their education, but they seemed to be outnumbered by the employers who didn’t seem to care.
Shortly after my article was printed, research by others came to similar conclusions. Republican Secretary of Labor, Elizabeth Dole, had her department conduct a series of high profile raids into businesses where many students were employed. Congressional hearings were conducted, and states like Wisconsin tightened their child labor laws.
One would hope that schools would be better employers. Every classroom should have access to a broom, and teachers should have students pick up paper off the floor. Many schools have after school student helpers under the direction of the classroom teachers, cutting construction paper, wiping desktops, and placing textbooks on the shelves. All this is good.
But we don’t want children working with toxic cleaning solvents and operating industrial floor buffers. Nor do we want children working in school kitchens with industrial mixers, ovens and other heavy equipment. This isn’t the same as baking cookies with grandma. Students are often barred from being around such equipment in private restaurants.
Parents are evenly split on whether they want their high school children working part-time jobs during the school year. Some parents believe that the real work of children is their schoolwork. The best way to make money for college is to get good grades and earn scholarships. More parents consider summer employment acceptable and to be encouraged.
Both our children worked part-time jobs in their junior and senior years. Our daughter did secretarial work for a law firm. Our son did computer date entry and for an electrical engineering company. Both sold popcorn at summer festivals. I knew their employers and made sure that schoolwork came first. We would hope that all parents would monitor their children’s employment.
But not every parent will use good judgment. A hundred years ago many parents sent their children to work in the cotton mills and coal mines because parents needed the money. These children rarely attended school and many were injured, even killed on the job. `State and federal governments were forced to create child labor laws for the benefit of children.
While employment can help in the development of our children, work is not automatically good, and parents must weigh the benefits against the risks in the world of work.
