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NEWS > U.S.A. > MISSOURI THE FIRST STATE TO PUT TODDLERS BACK TO WORK
MISSOURI THE FIRST STATE TO PUT TODDLERS BACK TO WORK
February 18 2011
Jefferson City, MO – Human beings are very unique in a great number of ways. Obviously things like language and high levels of intelligence separate us from other animals but other things, things we take for granted, are totally unique to our 
species. In particular, the length of our youth is something dramatically out of line with every other species on the planet. No animals spend as much time developing into adults as human beings, growing and evolving, physically at least, for upwards of twenty years, a quarter of our entire lives.
There are likely a great many reasons behind such a slow development cycle – lack of imperative, developing a more sophisticated brain amongst them – but regardless of the reasons the slow cycle has helped to define human culture. Unlike other animals, human beings nurture their young for an extended time and maintain close family connections throughout their entire lives, due in no small part to that long gestation. That close family interaction has helped to create concepts such as love, marriage, and other exhibition of affection. Such expressions are predominantly human and largely a by-product of our long gestational period. That means of course that children are children for a long time, and as protective elders we make every 
effort to protect them from the ills of the adult world. Eventually they will have to face those things and if a new proposal to do away with child labour laws passes muster in Missouri many kids may be put on the fast track to success in adulthood.
“My aim is to put back some common sense. We're not doing students any favor by telling them, 'You cannot work.' Many parents and children are already violating the state’s current labor laws which are so over the top,” said Senator Jane Cunningham who tabled the proposal. “Both of my children held jobs as minors and are now better for it. They learned and valued work ethic by earning their own money and taking responsibility.”
Currently the law prohibits persons under the age of 14 from working except in specialized professions such as acting with further safety restrictions placed on workers younger than 16.
“There are certain laws that have dramatically altered through time. In many ways a
great number of the laws we have in place now are far more conservative than those which were in place in the past. Part of that is certainly political correctness but part of it is also a better realization of how certain things affect people,” said Scrape TV Legal analyst Gabe Hawthorne. “Certainly these child labour rules are unique to the western world and even then are still relatively new, but the sheer ubiquity shows that these are common beliefs and standards, meaning that it is the will of the people generally. I don’t doubt that teaching children the value of a dollar or hard work is beneficial but there have to be restrictions.”
Cunningham apparently had her boys working from the age of six, though she admits that they started a little late.
“There are certainly advantages to having children work, largely that they have very small hands which allows them to do specialized tasks. They are also very short which keeps them out of the way. The bigger problem however, and something I don’t think has been taken into consideration, is the potential for them to take jobs away from adult workers and the issues that would cause,” continued Hawthorne. “Particularly in this time when people are suffering from job loss I think it would be a tough sell to try and bring more workers to the table. I mean yes you could get them to do menial tasks more readily but they will still have to be paid and there is only so much money to go around. There’s also the notion of letting kids be kids, but I think the issue that will ultimately kill the bill is the sheer lack of jobs in the marketplace.”
Cunningham herself had her first job at the age of 4, assembling chairs.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
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