In her article Children Should Not be Turned to Mini Wage Slaves in the London Times, Hannah Betts criticizes suggestions by a renown entrepreneur Karen Brady that children and youths should be exposed earlier to working culture and taking responsibility through being provided with opportunities to assist in businesses during weekends for minimal wages (Betts, 1). According to Betts this will be equivalent to modern day child slavery which overburdens the children who are already overwhelmed by school work during week days. She goes further to quote the 2012 Report by the UK Commission of Employment and Skills which indicates that such kind of arrangements may be detrimental to the children who may be exploited since they are not very conversant with the labor market.
It is important to note that there is a thin line between child labor and exposure of the child to daily running of business or other household chores. Despite Betts attempt to substantiate her argument, it will be a jaundiced perception to label all exposures of children to work as ‘mini wage slavery ‘. The most popular and effective education system adopted worldwide; The Montessori Method encourages the use of practical environment in teaching children at earlier stages.
As a teacher its recommended that you encourage students to use skills acquired in school in their really life situation, which includes assisting family business for minimal wages if possible that should be monitored to avoid exploitation. This will ensure that students grow up to be responsible adults in the society and it will eliminate ‘government social service dependence’ syndrome from the society.
The problem with our society is over emphasis on Children and social rights at the expense of responsibility, by creating the mentality that the society owes us such that when the child becomes a grown up the social burden is transferred from the parent to the government. We essentially bring up adults who are more concerned with having their ‘fair share of the nation cake’ than baking a bigger cake for the nation. Hence adopting Karen Brady’s advice will ensure w e have a nation of ‘Bakers’ that will ensure we have a better society.
Works Cited
Betts, Hannah. Children Should Not be Turned to Mini Wage Slaves. London Times, 2014.
