I “never worked a day in my life” until I turned 19 and found my first job. You don’t need to work in you mid teens to find a meaningful job as an adult.
Why? Well, it started because I wanted to play Mario Kart on Super Nintendo...
There is something about developing a work ethic as a young person that is important. It starts with chores like mowing the yard.
Rates of unionisation are extremely low, strikes are extremely rare (it took a 30% real income loss before junior doctors started striking in the UK), employment rates are the highest throughout the world and unpaid overtime is the norm in almost all careers.
I own a house. Some time ago, my plumbing had issues. I had to go down into my basement and deal with shit. Literal shit. Work ethic is what lets you put on the "I got things to do" hat, and then you do them.
That's just life. Life is hard and brutal requiring constant effort.
Is homework not inadequate to teach this lesson? Kids are not dumb.
There's a pervasive stench of Calvinism in American work culture, even among atheists. There's nothing sanctifying about work, insomuch as it is a good (or bad) thing to teach kids its importance by having them clock in.
Using children as a backup labor force due to an adult worker shortage is - as the kids call it - yucky.
And I think a lot of people saying kids shouldn't work during school didn't have poor parents and the problems those conditions create if you can't take your destiny into your hands before that magical 18th birthday when you can do anything you want.
Growing up, the yard had to be done weekly. I did it, got paid, and I was able to walk to the store and buy shit. Work when done well is gratifying.
The way we think about jobs sucks...
As are hundreds of other things[1] we don't try to indoctrinate[2] our kids with. Work is not special and doesn't make one "whole" more than the other potentially gratifying tasks. I say this as someone who enjoys their current job, but I've worked in other less enjoyable jobs (that incidentally pay less and harsher work environments)
2. Expect children to perform at the same level as fully grown adults, but perhaps with fewer hours
1. Sports, math, games, gardening, sex, most hobbies, repairs, etc.
Maybe I misunderstood you, but you seem to be talking about "work ethic" in the abstract, though — like, valuing the labor itself, rather than the fruits of it. My question is, why is that important? Who cares about labor for its own sake?
I work hard, and my first job was when I was 18. Nothing about a work ethic is special to working hard in a job. Some of the most impressive people I work with had really impressive school work ethics.
The alternative life path was basically me staying at home for hours playing Diablo 2.
> I learned how to manage money. And probably most importantly I learned how to talk to adults.
I learned how to manage money from an very simple allowance for chores my parents gave me. But also... I really learned to manage money at 18 due to a number of things including college expenses and other stuff. Managing money is not the end-all you think has to be learned at a job. Home Ec is a real class in most public schools.
Talking to adults is a thing you learn by living and interacting in the world. You might've happened to learn some of it at work, but there is no requirement to learning it at work. Also, there's nothing that special about talking to adults that's that different from talking to teenagers... Basics of conversation are simple.
> It was my most rewarding and fond memory of my childhood.
None of this justifies child labor. There are plenty of other rewarding opportunities that don't mean that children have to work dangerous meat-packing jobs.
Very importantly, there are plenty of paths that are not your path that were equally valid. (I'm telling you this from experience). Just because you did it that way doesn't mean everyone has to, or necessarily even should. Not saying the way you were raised was wrong, but we've learned a lot more about child-rearing. We don't have to pull out dunce caps just because people had associations with having to go through that in school.
Ah yes, the famously well adjusted always online teens.
> Also, there's nothing that special about talking to adults that's that different from talking to teenagers... Basics of conversation are simple.
Have you ever listened to teenagers talk to each other? I honestly can't tell if you're trolling.
I think teens are much better at sifting through the BS than you're giving them credit for. Also I've talked to plenty of teams who seemed perfectly well adjusted for their age. I'm not talking about them being the best conversationalists, I'm saying they have opportunities to learn. Also, are teachers not adults?
The basis for my argument is that school is sufficient for all of this. Nothing you've said has disproven that.
I started delivering newspapers when I was 10. Dropped out of college and was somewhat depressed with a series of menial jobs. Eventually got on track again, got an A.S. and got a job in the industry I wanted to be in. But it was a low level job that left me very little autonomy and didn't tax my intelligence.
At some point I just stopped caring. A "work ethic" can be killed. Or can devolve into a "money" ethic where people play the kinds of financial engineering games that led to the 2008 recession.
I care again, but only because I'm not doing a menial job anymore.
With the worry about AI, I was staring at my plumbing stack the other day for hours... Realizing, this is a shit job in the truest form, and I couldn't figure out how a machine could do it.
The reason to understand the suffering, to indoctrinate people as you say, is to teach people to respect those that have these jobs. Life is hard, and we are in it together.
But you also glossed over an important point I'm trying to make: we should see suffering as a sometimes necessary evil and try to alleviate it whenever possible, rather than see it as some sort of virtue.
This is a horrendous take, and I’m glad you’re not my parent.
They’ll learn the world isn’t rainbows and sunshine without being in a toxic work environment before they’re even old enough to vote.