Personal Reflection

Within the course of five days I have come to learn a lot about “labor”. There are many key aspects that particularly stood-out which caused me to be more focused on certain aspects within labor rather than other topics. For example, I was extremely surprised when I read an article that stated that people had to work SIXTEEN hours a day during the Great Depression. This number amazed me; especially compared to the average work hours in the twentieth century (6-8 hourrs a day).
As I was going through the general background and history of the research topic, “labor”, I found it easiest to focus in on and relate to “child labor”. As I am currently a sixteen year old student searching for a well paying, few hours a week job, I find it extremely hard to imagine my life revolving around my work at this young age instead of around school material. I find it to be unfortunate that child laborers must focus on their work rather than basic knowledge because i understand first-hand how beneficial the material learned in school is in life. I take my education very seriously and find it unfortunate that the children trapped in “child labor” are unable to obtain this education, which is why I chose to narrow my research topic down the “Child Labor”.