Mining Would Be Exciting For Kids: Trumps Secretary Of Education Wants Legal Child Labor [View all]

[Snarkoleptic]

Seriously, WTF is wrong with these people?
Betsy DeVos is a far fringe lunatic. Her husband is a (SC)amway heir, her brother is Erik Price of Blackwater infamy.

http://winningdemocrats.com/mining-would-be-exciting-for-kids-trumps-secretary-of-education-wants-legal-child-labor/

On Wednesday, Trump announced Betsy DeVos as the person he wants overseeing education in this country for the next four years. DeVos is a billionaire conservative donor who supports school vouchers and diverted public funds to religious schools, which would be a major violation of the separation of church and state since tax dollars would flow to “Christian” schools.

But DeVos is even more dangerous because of her ties to groups that want to take poor children out of the classroom and stick them straight into the workforce doing dangerous jobs like coal mining.

Acton Institute is funded by DeVos, and it advocates for the end of child labor laws.

They are on the streets, in the factories, in the mines, with adults and with peers, learning and doing. They are being valued for what they do, which is to say being valued as people. They are earning money.

Whatever else you want to say about this, it’s an exciting life. You can talk about the dangers of coal mining or selling newspapers on the street. But let’s not pretend that danger is something that every young teen wants to avoid. If you doubt it, head over the stadium for the middle school football game in your local community, or have a look at the wrestling or gymnastic team’s antics at the gym.

Here's a link to the Thinktank-
http://blog.acton.org/archives/89837-bring-back-child-labor-work-is-a-gift-our-kids-can-handle.html

The abundant prosperity of the modern age has brought many blessings when it comes to child-rearing and child development, offering kids new opportunities for education, play, and personal development. Yet even as we celebrate our civilizational departure from excessive child labor, we ought to be wary of falling into a different sort of lopsided lifestyle.

Alas, as a day-to-day reality, work has largely vanished from modern childhood, with parents constantly stressing over the values of study and practice and “social interaction” even as they insulate their children from any activity that might involve risk, pain, or boredom. As a result, many of our kids are coming far too late to the arena of creative service and all it brings: dignity, meaning, freedom, virtue, creativity, character, and neighbor love.

Operating out of fear of the harsh excesses of “harder times,” we have allowed our cultural attitudes to swing too far in the opposite direction, distorting work as a “necessary obligation of adulthood,” a gift too dangerous for kids. Working from these same distorted attitudes, the Washington Post recently published what it described as a “haunting” photo montage of child laborers from America’s rougher past.