At a hospital, Grace learns she has miscarried and
goes to a cemetery to bury the child. At the cemetery, she meets two important
people. The first, a lawyer. This man is kind to her and offers her his
business card if she ever needs his assistance. The other, a woman. She is very
wealthy and offers Grace a job.
The winter grows harsh and the girls are kicked out
of their apartment. Not only that, but their way of making money, selling
watercress’s, isn’t going so well in the cold weather. Grace is forced to work
for Mrs. Unwin from the cemetery. She is almost turned down because she demands
that her sister get a job too. Mrs. Unwin’s husband has an odd interest in the
girls though after he finds out Lily’s age and more importantly, their last
name. The girls work for almost nothing but they are given shelter and food.
During their time working for the Unwins, a series
of events leads grace to find out facts from her past and one important thing
about her future and her father. The Unwins try to carry out a plan while
holding an important secret from the sisters. Grace seeks the help of the
lawyer she met and they work together to bring the Unwins to justice.
Child labor has happened all around the world at one
time or another and still continues today in certain countries. Children work
under dangerous conditions as soldiers or in hazardous factories. They work
long hours under these awful conditions every day in order to survive. Some reasons
that children go work at such young ages is due to family financial issues and priorities
being that work would be more important than school. The reasons children went
to work in the past are similar to the reasons children still go to work today.
Education has a big impact on a child’s future. If the
child has the funds, the transportation, and their family supports them in
going to school, they will most likely not work until they get out of school. Funds
for education are an essential part of the decision weather or not the child
goes to school. Some schools are ill kept because the region is so poor and
there is not enough money to up keep the environment in which the students
learn. Textbooks, educators, and other materials are hard to get a hold of
sometimes and these factors can make going to school not worth wile because the
child will not get the best education. Working could be experience for their
future while lazy or incompetent education is impractical. Also, family financial
issues can be a factor. If a family doesn’t have enough money to send their
child to school or the parents’ income isn’t enough to survive, a child may
take a job to help out. Something else that may force a child into the work
force is their family’s beliefs. Some religions and cultures think it improper
for girls to be educated or go to school so they go to work early while boys
are educated.
Childhood is the time in every life where kids learn
and grow. They develop mentally and physically the most during this time but
when their minds aren’t being exercised, their brains don’t develop properly. Kids
have tons of energy and creativity. If a child can’t run around and play, they
lose their creativity earlier and are unable to burn off their energy. Adequate
amounts of sleep are also important, not only for developmental growth and
other necessary reasons, but when they’re in a factory all day, they need to
stay alert. These kids practically grow up in a factory. They are exposed to
dangerous machinery and if they get tired or rambunctious, they could easily injure
themselves. Children are exposed to conditions that cause stunted growth, lung diseases,
eye problems. They could cut themselves, burn their hands, and breathe toxic
fumes. In silk factories, children may handle dead worms that give them
infections.
In the early 1800’s, Connecticut was one of the
first states in America to pass a law saying that kids need some education
which kept more kids from factories. In 1938 the Fair Standards Labor Act was
passed making regulations on the conditions and hours that children could work.
New England was another early country to rebel. In 1932 citizens protested that
children need “healthy recreation and mental culture”.
All over the world, even today, about 250 million children
ages five to fourteen are working in harsh conditions. Forty-eight percent of
the 250 million are full time workers. About 73 million of the full time
workers are in Asia. There are about 38 million in Africa and 8 million in
Latin America.
It is awful that children are forced one way or
another to do such harsh labor in order to survive or just because they are not
able to do anything else instead. The fourth central question asks, “What
social institutions oppress or limit oppression, and how are they perpetuated?”
In this case, the social institution is child labor. Child labor oppresses
children from leading a normal and healthy childhood. Education could limit the
oppression of child labor by giving them an alternate opportunity. Child labor
is perpetuated because families are still poor and most likely, there will
always be families that are poor. Regions of the world will almost certainly
continue child labor because people can’t afford any better income when they
are desperate. Governments have put laws in place to halt the perpetuation of
child labor, but other governments will continue without laws weather it is the
right thing to do or not. Such hard times call for desperate measures and kids
can make the world of a difference when it comes down to keeping their family
alive.
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