Youth in America

Remarkabke article by Kelsey Piper at The Argument. She begins with some research done in 1913 by journalist Helen Todd, who interviewed young teenagers working in factories:

Todd asked these teenage laborers whether they would choose work in the factory or school if their families were rich enough that they didn’t need to work. Overwhelmingly, they chose the factory:

“The children don’t holler at ye and call ye a Christ-killer in a factory.”

“They don’t call ye a Dago.”

“They’re good to you at home when you earn money.” . . .

“Yer folks don’t hit ye so much.”

“You can buy shoes for the baby.”

“You can give your mother yer pay envelop.” . . .

“When my brother is fourteen, I’m going to get him a job here. Then, my mother says, we’ll take the baby out of the ‘Sylum for the Half Orphans.”

How things have changed in a century.

These days, according to Piper, the biggest threat to young people is not dangerous factory work or extreme poverty, but restrictive parenting:

This month, The Argument polled voters about modern parenting. I found it striking how far our society has pushed back the age at which children are trusted with even the barest autonomy — or, from another angle, how many years we expect parents to dedicate all their time to closely supervising them. 

We asked “At what age do you think it is appropriate for a child to stay home alone for an hour or two?” To my astonishment, 36% of respondents said that it was not appropriate until “between the ages of 14 and 17.”

Piper at first assumed that those must be people without children, but no; there wasn't much difference between people with and without children.

Or this:

Or take the responses to another question we asked: “When parents allow a 10-year-old child to play alone in a nearby park for three hours, should they be investigated by Child Protective Services for potential neglect?” Again, 36% of respondents said that they should.

She has lots more data of this sort.

I found that we had the opposite issue in my family. I kept encouraging my children to go out and play, but they preferred to stay inside and watch television or play video games. None of my children ever rode a bike, despite all the time I put into teaching and encouraging them.

But anyway it appears to be true that Americans under 18 spend a lot less time out on their own these days than they used to. We have good data on how many teenagers work, and that number is way down.

What impact is this having?

I confess that I have no idea. But maybe some of the despair that young people seem to feel about their own futures stems from their lack of experience at making their way in the world.