Rights = Responsibilities
In a recent discussion about the awesome article by Newt Gingrich suggesting we End Adolescence my support for his plans to put youth in the work force earlier were questioned:
Seems to me Gingrich is advocating imposing the burdens of adulthood on kids while not giving them any of the benefits. Why would anyone who advocated the rights of youth be OK with that?
I expect the rights will come one way or another. Either Newt also supports some (but not all) rights for youth but isn’t saying anything about it for obvious political reasons. Or he hopes to just get more responsibility passed through which would, with many not-so-gentle nudges from my group and others, create an increased demand for rights.
“I work 40 hours a week and pay taxes, I need to vote!”
And while my cause is called “youth rights” we believe that rights and responsibility go hand in hand. So whether you describe it as a “right to work” or a “responsibility to work” it works out to be the same. Maybe if we called ourselves the National Youth Responsibility Association we’d get more support from conservatives. *shrug*
The issue of work cuts to a central facet of this argument. My beef is that youth are not respected or treated equally or fairly by society. One key reason youth are not respected is because what they do, school, is not valued. They don’t entirely want to be there, and adults see them as ungrateful little brats who waste their time away while we work our asses off. Americans are very work-centric, so when we see a class of people not working and slacking off, we resent them for it.
Giving youth a substantive, important role to play in society is better for them to find purpose in their lives, and better for us to see them as contributing members of society instead of leeches.
Not to say that forcing all youth into the work force is what we’re about either. The key is having a choice. If high school begins to resemble college moreso than elementary school then we will be making progress.