A lecture given by Mardi Keyes at Southborough L'Abri on November 2nd, 2018. For more information, visit www.labri.org/mass and for more L'Abri lectures, visit the L'Abri Ideas Library.
From the birth of our nation, the relationship of young people to work has varied according to geography, gender, ethnicity, class, race and religion. But it is a fair to say that in general, young people (children and teenagers) used to be economic assets to their families. For many, young peoples’ work was (and in some cases still is) necessary for family survival. Today, many couples consider children a “luxury” they cannot afford. We will consider some of the consequences of “modern childhood” that emerged with the middle class in the 19th century – a childhood free from labor, dedicated to age-graded schooling and separated from casual (non-professional) relationships with adults.