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Research Projects

Child Labor and Education

Often when people think of child labor they are transported to a third world country where children are victimized, abused, and denied basic human rights. But the truth is that child labor isn’t just a third world issue; it impacts the lives of children and youth here in the United States.  As a team we decided to investigate the minors in the U.S who are laborers and how this exposure of hard labor results in multiple consequences to the child’s well-being. These consequences can include denial of an education, damage of physical health, and psychological effects. We came to this topic after reading articles that examined the lives of child migrant farm workers. The articles emphasized the youth’s failure to exceed in school due to time spent in the fields and traveling to find work throughout the year. While child labor affects children and youth in many aspects we narrowed it down to education because child labor violates a child’s right to receive an education. One of the greatest problems contributing to this ongoing violation is the adults’ themselves that employ minors. They willingly violate a child’s rights to education, play and access to a safe and nurturing environment. While advocates and policies strive to put an end to this problem, these adults who willingly allow children to work are standing in the way of a total solution. What we strive to understand as we examine further is why adults give jobs/labor to children in the first place. The purpose of our research is based on two aspects, awareness and advocacy. Awareness for the injustice that plaques populations of children in the U.S. Through this effort to expose and inform readers about this issue we hope to increase the participation of activists willingly to represent and work to end this matter. Due to the fact that this is a social issue that impacts children through multiple ways the consequence of not knowing would result in the lack of resources for generations affected directly. The significance of this research is that education is a major means of keeping children out of the labor market and culture factors discourage education. As a team we concluded that our proposed research question is, How to combat child labor through education in the U.S?

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