Zelizer’s work, Pricing the Priceless Child

   Zelizer’s work, Pricing the Priceless Child

Question 1

Zelizer’s work, Pricing the Priceless Child, shows how the American society between these two centuries made child labor into a societal norm and encouraged the use of child labor in industries and plantations by allowing parents to let their children become exploited so that they could earn their families. In the second chapter of the book, From Useful to Useless: Moral Conflict Over Child Labor, Zelizer tries to show the reader how the American society in the 1900s started to change the negative narrative of robbing children their ability to enjoy their childhood and putting a stop to child labor and implementing laws that made it into an illegal activity. In the book, she highlights how the legitimacy of child labor laws helped to redefine how children would be viewed from a beneficial economical asset to the sentimental value of children by their parents. The author believes that improvement of living standards, change in the moral understanding of child labor, increase of immigrant labor, and industrial technology were instrumental in changing child labor attitudes in America.

The improvement of living standards in the early twentieth century played an essential role in the decrease of child labor activities in American society. One of the reasons Zelizer points out in the second chapter of her book is that poverty was a driving factor in allowing parents to allow their children to be enrolled as laborers in agricultural plantations and industries. Parents viewed their children as extra income earners whose role in the family was to chip in the economic situation of the family. I believe that poverty provided an opportunity for society to develop an economic value attitude towards children instead of the normal sentimental value. Zelizer argues that child labor acted as the primary source for additional support for low-income families who were undergoing economic and financial stress (Zelizer 57). However, in the 1900s, when the economic situation of the country started to improve, more people were employed, and they began to receive better wages. Thus, they improved their living standards, and the view of children as an additional economic support system faded with time. Ramchandani differs from Zelizer’s belief that children were viewed as additional economic support. In her article, child labor is viewed as a rite of passage whereby, at a certain age, the child is supposed to start working in the plantations (Ramchandani 2018). With the improvement of living, most poverty-stricken families were enabled to make ends meet, and the societal view of the economic value of children was shifted to the sentiment that is loved and enjoyed up to today.

The moral reformation in the understanding of child labor was another reason why there was a shift in the societal appreciation of children. Zelizer believes that the traditional understanding of the age at which should work is misguided and formed the basis for how society underappreciated children’s value. The author states that parents used to boast that their children were working in factories and plantations at such early, and she further shows how they saw this act as noble and a stepping stone for establishing the roots of a working man in the future (Zelizer 67). Moral understanding of parents’ view of child labor was flawed and misguided and helped child labor to take root in American societies in the past. Ariel Ramchandani shares the same sentiments as Zelizers because she writes that parents are sourcing their children as labor through their ignorant beliefs that hard work builds character (Ramchandani 2018). However, over the years, Zelizer writes that new moral standards and beliefs towards child labor helped shift the economic value of children to a more positive outlook of their value. She writes that the reformers argued that parents who subjected their children to child labor did not love or appreciate their children (Zelizer 72). The reformers were able to change how parents treated their children. They stopped viewing their children as an economic support system of the family, but as children who were meant to enjoy their childhood and supposed to be given an opportunity to grow and live out their dreams. Moral reformation helped to change the societal view of child labor from a proud act to an act that showed ignorance and negligence of the child’s rights.

Apart from the moral reformation of people’s understanding of child labor, an increase of immigrant labor and the advancement of technology in America saw a decrease in the need for child labor in industries and factories. According to Zelizer, the improvement of technology in the country helped reshape the need for children workers in factories. Advancement of technology saw a rise in new industries that required highly skilled labor that did not see the need for using children as a labor source. At the same time, there was an increasing population of an immigrant from neighboring countries like Mexico, who increased the unskilled labor force. With the increase of unskilled labor in the workforce, children were less likely to be hired. Children were allowed to go to school and enjoy their childhood because parents could also make ends meet due to increased employment opportunities. The advancement of technology also saw the rise of new industries that we’re able to develop because of advanced technology. New industries such as the film and theatre industries allowed children to get employed and earn a wage. According to Zelizer, unlike the child laborers, children employed in the theatre and film industries loved their work (Zelizer 95). Thus, they were not exploited or underpaid like child laborers in factories. The advancement of technology led to the rise of new industries, which changed how child labor was the view while an increase in immigrants who provided unskilled labor helped to replace child laborers in factories and plantations.

Question 2

The kinds of environment that are most beneficial for children’s emotional, physical and social growth includes environments that; ensure the safety of the child, promote child engagement and facilitate appropriate social interaction with other children. A child needs to feel safe so that they will be able to play, interact, and take in the environment at which they have been placed. Children like playing around, and thus, they require to feel safe to engage their desire for wonder. Children brought up or raised in unsafe environments tend to develop aggressive behavior that affects their emotional stability and their ability to make friends since they are prone to violent behavior. In addition to this, unsafe experiences may traumatize them, and this may hinder their ability to grow healthy mentally. Mintz, in his book, Huck’s Raft, describes the sub-urban area as a great place to raise a child because it is secure and had the resources to engage a child such as toy stores (Mintz 7).  Apart from feeling safe, children need to be placed in an environment that will engage their sense of wonder and curiosity. A colorful classroom filled with stickers and animal drawings will engage the child’s curiosity and need to know the meaning of the drawings. At this age, their sense of wonder and curiosity leads to their ability to consume information and learn how to differentiate between colors, shapes, and sizes. Such an environment is important for the cognitive development of the child. Lastly, a child needs to be in an environment that will allow them to be socially interactive with other kids. Interacting with other kids will not only improve the social growth of the child but also will shape their moral behavior.

Beneficial environments that promote the child’s emotional, physical, and social growth are important and necessary for the child’s cognitive development. However, there are some factors, both socially and economically, that create barriers that hinder a child’s ability to access these beneficial environments. These factors affect the child’s ability to develop mentally, socially, and emotionally. These barriers include poverty, social-emotional barriers, and having a dysfunctional family and affect how a child relates to others and his surrounding as he grows. Poverty is the state of being unable to make ends meet. It can also be defined as the condition of not having adequate material possessions or income to meet a person’s needs. Children born into low-income families undergo various challenges that affect their general well-being. Child poverty affects their physical, emotional, and general health because their parents are unable to provide for food and shelter. They also face the challenge of missing out on the opportunity to go to school. According to research conducted by Duncan and Kathrine, poor kids finished two less long periods of tutoring, earned not exactly half as a lot of cash (5).  Poor children also face the challenge of being exposed to activities that violate their rights, such as child labor. Poor children are emotionally and psychologically affected by poverty because they are unable to enjoy some common joys in the world for children like going to carnivals or toys.

Apart from poverty, socio-economic challenges also hinder the ability of parents and guardians to provide beneficial environments to their children. Social factors like racism and war affect how they are brought up or raised by their parents. Sacks and Murphy (2018), in an article, state that at least one in ten children in America has experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences. Children in war-stricken areas like the Middle East region experience emotional and psychological turmoil because of what they experience on a daily basis. In addition to this, most of them are likely orphans because their parents may have died during the war. Poverty is also common in war-stricken areas, and they end up having small physic because they cannot afford to access food.  They are also exposed to traumatic experiences that affect their psychological well-being. Racial discrimination affects how a child is treated by others in society and school. Children who undergo racial prejudice suffer emotional stress, which affects their self-esteem. Also, they face the challenge of being bullied by their peers, and this further affects their ability to grow socially and make friends. Children who are raised under such socio-economic stresses develop a negative attitude against the world as well as being affected emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Being raised in a dysfunctional family may also affect a child’s ability to grow emotionally, socially, and physically. Family is among the first relationships that a child forms while growing up. Brazelton and Greenspan believe that a child and their mother’s relationship becomes more intense as the child grows up (Brazelton and Greenspan 5). A child learns a lot from members of the family who are tasked with looking after him or her. A family is supposed to provide an environment where a child can be able to express themselves, feel secure, and depend on them to provide their basic needs. Children raised in a stable home grow up to have a good social life and are emotionally stable. However, children who are raised in a dysfunctional family growing up being emotionally deprived, anti-social, and also unable to interact with other people to form relationships. A dysfunctional family is a family characterized by child neglect, abuse, and constant conflict between parents. Conflict behavior between parents of a child affects their psychological well-being because they grow up being violent and have aggressive tendencies towards others. Such behaviors put a constraint on their ability to have a healthy social life with their peers. They also develop a negative outlook on life and those around them.

One change I would make to the issues discussed above would be to provide and sponsor counseling services to children raised in dysfunctional families. Being raised in a dysfunctional family, as stated above, leads to various psychological issues such as violent outbursts as well as aggressive tendencies towards others. However, these problems are able to be solved through the use of counseling and visiting a counselor for one-on-one therapy to help them solve their various social issues such as violence. In believing that sponsoring such children to attend therapy will help them to develop a more positive outlook towards life. This will also enable them to have a social life as well as form long-lasting relationships with others that will have long time importance to their well-being in the future.

Work Cited

Brazelton, T. Berry, and Stanley I. Greenspan. The irreducible needs of children: What every child must have to grow, learn, and flourish. Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2009.

Duncan, Greg J., Kathrine M. “Early‐childhood poverty and adult attainment, behavior, and health.” Child development 81.1 (2010): 306-325.

Mintz, Steven. Huck’s raft: A history of American childhood. Harvard University Press, 2004.

Ramchandani, Ariel. “The Overlooked Children Working America’s Tobacco Fields.” The Atlantic, 21 June 2018, www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/child-labor-tobacco/562964/.

Sacks, Vanessa, and David Murphey. “The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences, nationally, by state, and by race or ethnicity.” (2018).

Zelizer, Viviana A. Pricing the priceless child: The changing social value of children. Princeton University Press, 1994.