In reading this chapter, one part that stood out the most to me was the fact that during the Depression high school enrollment increased by about 50 percent. Slightly less than half were between 14 and 16 in the 1930's, while by 1940 two thirds were in school. In the reading Hine's also noted that there was no point in dropping out at fourteen and fifteen or even sixteen to get a job, because there weren't any jobs out there for them.
I don't necessairly think that the Depression was a good thing, but the fact that the loss of jobs kept young children from dropping out of school just to work was a good thing. As a child, they have a responsibility of going to school and furthering their education. Although in the reading he says that with children being in school it helped keep children off the streets, until it became to over crowded and had to switch to double sessions. At least the child still had the option of going to school and getting the education everyone deserves.
I don't believe that any child or teenager for that matter, should have to decide whether or not they want to work and help support the family or go to school and get an education. I think that a teenager can have a part time job, but not to support the family, but rather have extra spending cash, or save it up for their car or what ever it maybe. The parents are suppose to do be the ones that take care of there children, not vice versa. I know that there are cases which the teenager may need to help, but they shouldn't have that weight on there shoulders at that age.
Now a days teenagers are starting to have part time jobs around the age of 16 or 17. They are still attending school, and many are even now going to college and furthering there education.
I know when I was still living at home my parents didn't want me to get a part time job until I knew that I could handle my school work and the job at the same time. My grades were more important than starting a part time job. They didn't want me to be stressed, they wanted me to be the teenager that I was, rather than be stressed out and my grades start to fail.
I agree with you that it was a good that the lack of jobs during the depression caused more students to enroll in High School. However, there wasn't any work because Congress had passes laws that prevented teens from getting a job in the first place. And I think that wasn't so good.
ReplyDeleteIf the youths would have had the opportunity to be eligible to get a job, they could have potentially helped their families during the Depression, just as youths had in the second half of the 19th century years before. People in the 1930s were desperate to find work and I'm sure the kids, just as well as the parents, would have been happy to have someone in the family to have a source of income to support the family.
Even when the student did enroll in High School, Hine expresses that teachers "did not know what to teach them" (204).