Summary

This research is about the use of children in the American rural labour force, which is restricted, but in fact, is not enough to fully protect children against exploitation. Industries, such as the rural industry, benefit from the lack of strictness in the law system. Therefore, I decided to learn more about the consequences it has on children, and explore solutions that have been put forward by scholars, in order to fully protect American children in the rural labour force and stop the consequences it has on them physically and psychologically. My research will go through three aspects that have a negative influence on children when violated, which are the minimum age, work conditions and education and will be enhanced by some Quebec examples. I will examine the regulations concerning those three aspects and analyse the impact it has on children according to many scholars. Finally, my research will provide some ideas about how the themes should be restated in order to fully protect children in the rural American labour force.

Physical and Psychological Consequences of Using Children in the Rural American Labour Force

As I grew up in the rural area, I worked on the farm as did my parents. In Québec, many people participate when it comes to the work that has to be done, I do, and so do my cousins, my uncles and aunts, even the neighbours and their children. The rural community is a really tight community, and whenever someone needs help, there will be someone to help. Thinking about what I was doing to help on the farm, when I was a child, today really makes me wonder if it was really safe to do everything I did. Sitting on the tractor wing going from a field to another, standing in the bale wagon and pushing them on the bale stacker that brought them up in the barn, driving the ATV, going by myself to get the cows in the field, pushing the bales down the barn to feed the cows, taking care of the calves farm by myself, where they were raised, all of those activities related to help on the farm, did not seem to be dangerous, but in fact could have killed a careful adult. Therefore, what about a child that sees fun in helping on the farm? Moreover, for many children in the rural environment, working during haymaking season is their summer job, because they are too young to work anywhere else. In addition, because farmers need more staff during that time of the year, they hire younger children and pay them on the black market. In Canada, we have strict regulations about the minimum age for employment, and in them, industries are specified where there are specific amendments. However, not all children are protected as they are here when it comes to working on farms. Actually, “of nearly 250 million children engaged in child labor around the world, the vast majority- 70 percent, or some 170 million-are working in agriculture” (Abusive Child Labor) and are exposed to extremely dangerous working conditions. Moreover, I found out that even though it is regulated, child labour on farms is spread in developed countries as well as in the Third World countries. As a result, this research will examine and analyse the situation and conditions of working children in the agricultural labour force of the United States, to find what social progress has to be made in order to protect children against any form of exploitation or harmful labour enhanced with examples from Quebec situations, which may have negative physical or psychological consequences on them.

First of all, there is, in the United States, a minimum age standard for employment on the federal level. On the non-agricultural employment federal level, the minimum age standard for non-hazardous work is 14-years-old, except for some jobs, such as newspaper delivery. As for hazardous work, the minimum age set is 18-years-old (Child Labor Bulletin 101 3). As stated in the Child Labour Bulletin 101 and 102 “[t]hese provisions were enacted to ensure that when young people work, the work is safe and does not jeopardize their health, well-being or educational opportunities” (1). However, even though both the bulletins state the same preoccupation, the laws concerning the minimum age standard changes when it comes to agricultural employment.
As reported in the Child Labor Bulletin 102, the minimum age standard set on the federal level to work is 10-years-old. Nevertheless, it is also specified that a child of any age may be employed at any time by their parents if the farm is theirs. Then, when working on a farm, 10 and 11-years-old only need parental consent. As for 12 and 13-years-old, they can work on any farm with parental consent. Finally, for 14 and 15-years-old, there are no restrictions concerning non-hazardous work, whereas, the minimum age standard for hazardous work (See appendix 1) on farms is 16-years-old (3). Why is it this way? Is it less dangerous to operate a tractor in the field than operate any other machine? Is it less dangerous to pickup fruits in the field than deliver newspapers?
The answer is no, it is not less dangerous, hazardous means hazardous, no matter in what field of industry it takes place. As a matter of fact, Lois Whitman, executive director of the children’s rights division rights watch says that “farm work is the most dangerous work open to children in this country”, talking about the United States (Abusive Child Labor). Moreover, Lee Tucker, author of the report Fingers to the Bone, states that a “twelve-year-old can work on a farm, but is not allowed to work in a fast-food restaurant”, and believes that “there is no good reason to have such a double standard” (Abusive Child Labor).As an example taken from Tucker’s report (33), “[i]n a Florida orange grove in January 1999, two young farm workers fell off the tailgate of a moving pickup truck. Several crates of oranges fell on top of them, killing one of the boys and wounding the other. […] The accident occurred on a school day”.
One may think that because some children have their parents consent or work with them, they are protected from injuries, but the facts may prove one wrong. In a research done on children working on family farms in the United States, it was found that the parents are more likely to let their children do hazardous work, like driving tractors at a really young age, because they do not really feel the danger of it. Instead, they believe that their children by working on family farms will “learn responsibilities, work ethics, skills, and how to solve problems” (Kim, et al. 164). In the same manner, psychologists suggest that children are more likely to develop moral and financial responsibility through family interaction rather than through work experiences outside the home because the family is still the primary place for child development (Kim, et al. 165), therefore working on the family farm might be beneficial, but at what cost? As an example, being children rose on a family farm in Quebec, my cousins were allowed to drive the tractors from the field to the house. One might think it is not dangerous, because there are roads, but the reality is that a child can lose control of the tractor and make it fall on its side and being severely injured from it. One of them broke his leg, because his 15-years-old brother lost control and he felt down. Moreover, it is illegal to let a child drive without a license, here and in the United States as well.
Meanwhile, in the United States, children are employed at any age, as the law allows it, on commercial farms where their parents work. Furthermore, the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs reported to the federal Fair Standard Labor Act that children as young as 6 years old were working in the fields (GA0 17). These kinds of violations of the minimum age standard may have direct impact on children in many ways, such as health problems related to pesticide exposure or farm accidents, such as tractor rollovers (David, and Leonard 9). Moreover, these children are brought to work in the fields for many reasons, but most of all, because of the poverty in their family (Tucker 12). To sum up, the minimum age for employment in the agricultural labour force should be the same than in any other area of employment for the benefits of the children that are mainly physically injured from working on U.S. farms.

Second of all, work conditions are really important in the respect of a country’s workers, and it makes sure that every worker is treated with the minimum requirements regarding the quality of the environment in which they work. In the agricultural labour force, however, those requirements are most of the time not respected by employers, and children are the most vulnerable when it comes to these abuses. Work conditions in the United States for children are various, among them a maximum of hours worked during school days is stated, the respect of the minimum wage, health and safety facilities, protection against hazardous work conditions and so on.
For starters, the maximum hours allowed of work during a school day, which has a major impact on school attendance, differs, in the same manner as the minimum age, when it comes to the agricultural employment. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) states that a child, aged fourteen or fifteen, who works in the non-agricultural settings, can work for limited hours outside of school. According to The Child Bulletion 101, they are allowed to work a maximum of three hours during a school day, eight hours during a school week, eight hours on a non-school day and forty hours on a non-school week. Moreover, they are not allowed to work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. (3). Whereas, concerning children working in the agricultural labour force, the FSLA is less protective. It is said, in the Child Labor Bulletin 102 that a child younger than twelve can work unlimited hours if he works on a small farm with his parent’s consent. It is the same thing for children between twelve and thirteen, except that they can work on any farm. Plus, children aged fourteen or more, can work unlimited hours without their parent’s consent required (3). This shows that there are no limits to the hours a child is allowed to work during a school day or a school week in the agricultural labour force. As an example, it is easy to say that a fourteen year old little girl could work from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., then spend her day in school, and go back to work in the field from when the school finishes to 8 p.m.. That kind of situations faced by many children is known to increase the risk of physical injuries that occur because of the state of tiredness they are in. In addition, as reported in Protecting Children at Work a study has shown the relation between work stress and depression. Moreover, the increase “of problem behavior, such as alcohol and other drug use and minor delinquency among young people who work […] at high intensity[,] in comparison with their nonworking peers” (131-132).
Furthermore, there is health and safety risk norms to be taken into consideration and these norms are not often implemented by the employers. Children working on farms are exposed on a daily basis to really dangerous work conditions, such as exposure carcinogenic pesticides, unsanitary conditions, heat-related illnesses, and hazardous equipment (Tucker 16).
When it comes to pesticide exposure, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the restricted entry intervals, which consist in the minimum time a field worker must be kept away when pesticides are applied, usually between 4 and 72 hours depending on the product used (Hock 2), with a 154-pound male in mind (GAO 19). Therefore, “children are at greater risk from pesticide exposure than most adults, because, pound for pound of body weight, children breathe more and eat more. They also have more hand-to-mouth contact than adults” (GAO 3). Moreover, when in contact with pesticides, employers are supposed to provide the field workers with personal protective equipment (Hock 3) (See appendix 2). On the contrary, according to the GAO, “[y]oung children may not wear clothing that protects them from [pesticide] exposure” (17), when in the field as would their parents. Moreover, among the thousands of pesticides used in US fields registered to the EPA, three hundred and fifty are registered to be used on food crops, and according to Gina M. Solomon and Lawrie Motts, authors of the report Trouble on the Farm “101 are probable or possible human carcinogen” (chap 1). In consequence, children are highly exposed to dangerous health problems when in contact in any way with pesticides, be it from drinking in irrigation canals, eating with dirty hands, or consuming contaminated fruits or vegetables. The immediate repercussions to acute pesticide poisoning often occurred when in contact with some common organophosphates (See appendix 3) include “blurred vision, salivation, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting wheezing, and sometimes seizures, coma, and death”. As for the long term exposure, the repercussions may include “lasting effects on attention span, intelligence, and behavior, […] increase risk for cancers of the lymphatics and blood, stomach, prostate, testes, brain, and soft tissues”, and may “interfere with hormonal function” (Solomon, and Motts chap 1).
Another problem, when it comes to agricultural work, is the sanitation conditions, which consists in providing drinking water and water for hand washing and toilet facilities. These conditions are imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) (See appendix 4). Farm-workers are exposed to high temperatures, and working under those conditions can be extremely hard for the body, therefore, without adequate quantity of fluids and rest, the workers are exposed to dehydration and heat-illness that can result in death. Tucker (26) in his report states that “the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency recommend that workers labouring under hot weather conditions drink a minimum of eight once of water every half-hour. Moreover, this norm increases as the weather conditions change. As for the federal and state laws, they require the employers to provide two or three gallons of water per hot day per employee. But, even though, these conditions are stated by the OSHA, many farms do not provide their employees with the water they need. In fact, in Quebec, strawberry field workers do have access to water, but it is not brought to them in the field. Therefore, depending on how far workers will be from the water supply, they might not get enough drink. Most of the time, field workers bring their own water.
So, if workers do not get enough drinking water, what are the toilet facilities and hand washing conditions like? Most of the children interviewed for the report Fingers to the Bone say that they never had access to toilet facilities: “Portapotty? No. Every place I’ve ever been, you just take tissue paper and find a whole” says a child, and “They are too nasty to use” says another (Tucker 23). In fact the lack of “toilet facilities is unsanitary and contributes to the spread of parasitic infection among workers”, says Tucker (24). The same goes with hand washing facilities. The Worker Protection Standard, states that in order to protect the workers, and employer should provide “soap, single use towels, and water” (Hock 3). Furthermore, as, in most of the cases, they are unable to wash their hands with soap, the children farm workers are exposed to higher risks of pesticide poisoning (Tucker 25). Why children’s working conditions in an industrialised country are poorly respected, and why are authorities not doing much to get the farm owners to respect them?

The last but far from being the less important, education is to be seriously taken into consideration when it comes to child development and is definitely injured, so to speak, when talking about children working on U. S. farms.
In the Unites States, children are required to attend school until age 16-18, and to start around age 5-7 (Education in the United States) depending on the state law (See appendix 5). However, children that work on farms do not, for most of them, attend school between those ages, because they work too many hours and are incapable of keeping up with the school work and the farm work. In fact, the national dropout rate for farm worker is 45 percent (Tucker 48). There are also many factors that contribute to the lack of educational attainment, as illustrated throughout this paper, when it comes to children farm workers, such as poverty, working too many hours and family’s frequent moves.
The fact that many farm worker families are poor and constantly mobile makes it hard for children to finish their education. In fact, “children who move often are two and a half more likely to need to repeat a grade than children who do not move” (4). Consequently, the repercussions are important. Those frequent moves interrupt their learning and also make it difficult for them to adapt socially to the school environment, and it makes it really hard for teachers to teach effectively. According to the National Center for Farmworker Health, changing schools is hard emotionally on children, who are more likely to drop out if they change schools four or more times (4).
Moreover, extreme poverty faced by some of those families, mean that school is not an option. They do not have money to pay for books, shoes or clothes, or simply, the children need to work because their family needs the little money they can earn. Amelia Lopez, outreach worker of the Department of Economic Security, said in an interview for Human Right Watch that “a lot of kids don’t go to school anymore, they [the parents not putting their kids to school] never get caught, because they more around” (49).
Furthermore, according to the web site stopchildlabor.com, a study had shown that it is a good experience for a child, which is allowed to work, to do so up to 15 hours per school week. However, the study also shows that, when a child work more than 15 hours per school week, behaviour such as “negative work attitude surface, autonomy from parents increases and family interaction decreases, and drug and alcohol abuse escalate”. In addition, they add that those negative effects increase as work hours exceed 20 hours per school week. In addition, children engage in that intensive work (20 hours or more) generally do not get enough sleep. In result, according to the report Protecting Youth at Work “students who work more than 20 hours per week report more symptoms of daytime sleepiness, including tendencies to arrive at school late because of oversleeping and to have difficulty staying awake in school” (97). Also, it is stated that “excessive sleepiness is associated with performance lapses and failures, which can interfere with learning” (97). They even associate tiredness of children to play a role in the injury rate of adolescents and in increasing their vulnerability (97).
Some would say that it is different in Quebec, but as a matter of fact, it really is not. In my background of farm labour, my parents dropped out of school around the age of 15 years old to help their parents on the farm, so did their neighbours’ children this year. They dropped out of school because they could not keep up with helping their parents, doing their homework and go to school. Moreover, they are born in the same generation than I am, and went to school with the exact same laws than I did, which states that children here should attend school from age 6 up to 16 or until they finish high school and get their DES (Diploma of high school studies) and it did not stop their parents from allowing them to drop out, and the reason is the same as in the United States, they need their help. However, why is it that money passes before the education, the safety and health of those children? Why is it that the government does not improve its regulations regarding child labour in the agricultural labour force to protect its future citizens?

There is a social progress that has to be made in order to fully protect the American children, and it is all linked together with education, working conditions, and the minimum age standard.
First, in regards with the minimum age standard, there is a serious improvement that could be made. As suggested by Tucker, the minimum age standard to work in agriculture should be changed to thirteen years old, except for children working on family farms. However, it should not be allowed on family farms either, because as proven by Kim, Zepeda, and Kantor, children on family farms are allowed at a younger age by their parents to do hazardous work. It is also suggested to raise the minimum age to hazardous work to eighteen years old, like in non agricultural labour force, since agriculture in this paper, has proven to be as, if not, more dangerous than working in a restaurant, for example.
In relation with the minimum age standard, it is also suggested that in education, children should be forbidden to work in the farms before school hours aged fifteen and younger, in order to ensure their presence of mind in class. This would be a way for children to enjoy school more, and hold on to it, which might by consequence lower the rate of dropout. Moreover, Tucker suggests that the hours a child of fourteen or fifteen years old is allowed to work during a school day or week should be put up to the same standards than in non-agricultural occupations, which could be even stricter, because physical work on a farm is tiring for a child in his growth period, which is the period in their life where they need more rest.
Moreover, there is clearly an improvement that can be made in the educational need of the rural community. There are ways to interest children to school, and there is a certain education that parents should be provided with, to show them the necessity for their children to get a decent education. Furthermore, teachers in the rural community, that are aware of the high dropout rate, should address the authorities, when a child does not come to school for more than two days in a row and that cannot provide the school with medical reasons. Also, if a child is leaving school or entering a new school when the harvest season finishes or begin, a follow up with both schools should be made, in order to make sure that it is less easy for families to bring their children from one place to another.
The part that is the most important to change, is the application of the working conditions. They already exist, but for some reason, agricultural employers do not follow them. This cannot be made without more inspectors. This is the first thing that should be improved. There is a serious need for more inspectors, or at least more unannounced inspections, because right now, there are not any, and this costs lives. Moreover, the responsibility of the conditions the workers live in should be on both, the farm contractors’ and the farms owners’. It is illogical that someone that owns a farm does not have any responsibility regarding the kind of conditions his employees are working with on a daily basis and that the law actually grants them from it. In the case of the work conditions, the key of it really are unannounced inspections. By implanting that king of visits to farms, the government would be able to catch every farm that does not respect the law. Children underage (under the minimum age standard) would have to return to school. By inspecting more often, if sanitation conditions are not respected authorities would know if farm workers are in the field too soon after pesticide appliance, and so on. In relation with those inspections, fines would be given, both to the owner, for not verifying the work of the farm labour contractor, and the farm labour contractor. Furthermore, models for the exposure to pesticides should be revised, in order to protect children from chemicals that can cause them serious illnesses, even though it would be illegal. Moreover, since certain pesticides are classified as being hazardous work conditions, the age to which children can handle these should be increased to eighteen years old, the same as the minimum age for hazardous work.

In conclusion, child labour in the United States is an important social problem. Things have to be changed and improved, and if the government does so, its future citizens will be healthy and educated. Putting money in the future, for certain countries, is really hard to see as beneficial, but the fact is that everything a civilization has passes through education, and by educating the rural area, the dropout rate will go lower, and the literacy rate will go higher, and the country will become more intelligent and productive.




Works cited

“Abusive Child Labor Found in U.S. Agriculture.” hrw.org. 21 February 2007 .

David, Shelley, and James B. Leonard. The Ones the Law Forgot: Children Working in Agriculture. Washington, D.C.: Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc, 2000. 12 April 2007 .

“Education in the United States.” Wikipedia.org. 18 April 2007. 10 March 2007 .

Hock, Winand K. EPA Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides. The Pennsylvania State University: 1996. 12 April 2007 FreePubs/pdfs/uo204.pdf>.

“Impact on education.” stopchildlabor.com. 2 April 2007 .

Infoplease.com. 2007. 10 March 2007 .

Kim, Jongsoog, Lydia Zepeda, and Paula Kantor. “Child Labor Supply on US Family Farms: An Interdisciplinary Conceptualization.” Journal of Family and Economic Issues. 26 (2005): 160-173. 31 January 2007 content/j0231870224550x3/>.

National Center for Farmworker Health, Inc. Overview of America’s Farmworkers. 2002. 29 March 2007 .

National Research Council. Protecting Youth at Work. 1998. 22 March 2007 ://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309064139>.

Quebec Government. Commission des Normes du Travail. 24 June 2004. 22 March 2007 .

Solomon, Gina M., and Lawrie Motts. “Trouble on the Farm.” 1998. Natural Resources Defence Council. 22 March 2007 farminx.asp>.

Tucker, Lee. Fingers to the Bone. Ed. Human Rights Watch. 2000. 21 February 2007 .

United States General Accounting Office. Improvements Needed to Ensure the Safety of Farmworkers and Their Children. March 2000. 22 March 2007 < http://www.
gao.gov/new.items/rc00040.pdf>.

United States Department of Labor. Field Sanitation. - 1928.110. 1 May 1987. 22 March 2007 < http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=
STANDARDS&p_id=10959>.

United States Department of Labor. The Child Labor Bulletin 101. February 2005. 22 March 2007 < http://www.osha.gov/pls/epub/wageindex.download?p
_file=F11420/wh1330.pdf>.

United States Department of Labor. The Child Labor Bulletin 102. May 2004. 22 March 2007 .

“What is Child Labor?” Continuetolearn.com. 2000. February 21 2007 history.html>.

Physical and Psychological Consequences of Using Children in the Rural American Labour Force

This research will examine and analyse the situation and conditions of working children in the agricultural labour force of the United States, to find what social progress has to be made in order to protect children against any form of exploitation or harmful labour, which may have negative physical or psychological consequences on them.

I. Minimum Age
A. Laws about minimum age
1. General labour force
2. Agricultural labour force
3. Hazardous work
B. Minimum age violation
1. Family farms
2. Other farms
3. Quebec example
C. Consequences
II. Work conditions
A. Hours of work on a school day
1. General labour force
2. Agricultural labour force
3. Consequences on children
B. The minimum wage
1. Agricultural labour force
2. Farms contractors and farm owners
3. Quebec example
C. Health and safety risks
1. Pesticides
2. Sanitation
III. Education
A. Attendance to school
B. Poverty
IV. Social progress
A. Regulations regarding education
B. Regulations regarding work conditions
C. Regulations regarding minimum age

Thesis Statement and Outline

This research will examine and analyse the situation and conditions of working children in the agricultural labour force of the United States, to find what social progress has to be made in order to protect children against any form of exploitation or harmful labour enhanced with examples from Quebec situations, which may have negative physical or psychological consequences on them.

I. Minimum Age Standard

A. Federal standard
1. Non-agricultural employment
2. Agricultural Employment
3. Hazardous work

B. Federal standard violation consequences
1. On family farms
2. On commercial farms

II. Work conditions

A. Hours of work on a school day
1. Non-agricultural employment
2. Agricultural employment
3. Consequences on children

B. Health and safety risks
1. Pesticides exposure and consequences
2. Sanitation requirements and violations

III. Education

A. Compulsory school attendance

B. Poverty, constant move and long hours of work consequences

IV. Social progress

A. Regulations and improvements regarding the minimum age standard

B. Regulations and improvements regarding education

C. Regulations and improvements regarding the work conditions

Appendix 1: Hazardous occupations
Appendix 2: Personal protective equipment requirements to handle pesticides
Appendix 3: Organophosphate pesticides
Appendix 4: Field sanitation requirements
Appendix 5: Compulsory school attendance

Review of the literature

Review of the Literature;Emotional, Physical and Psychological Consequences of Using Children in the Rural American Labour Force

Of nearly 250 million children engaged in child labor around the world, the vast majority- 70 percent, or some 170 million-are working in agriculture. Child agricultural workers frequently work for long hours in scorching heat, haul heavy loads of produce, are exposed to toxic pesticides, and suffer high rates of injury from sharp knives and other dangerous tools. Their work is gruelling and harsh, and violates their rights to health, education, and protection from work that is hazardous or exploitative. (Human Rights Watch)

Child Labour and Child Work

First of all, there is a distinction to be made in order to really understand the problem of child labour, and it is to classify what is child labour and what it is not. “At one end, certain work activities can be beneficial to children, or, toward the center, at least not harmful”, which is qualified as child work, and “at the other end […] harmful work” and “work that keeps children from attending to school”(Hindman; continuetolearn.com), which is considered as child labour. However, what has been recognised to be harmful work according to the law?

Historically; Towards Regulations

Child labour was present in every industry, mines, mills, and factories at the beginning of the 1900’s, says Hindman. Even though there were some king of an attempt to regulate child labour before 1903, in his historical overview of child labour, Todd Postol mentions that the first person who really brought up the child labour issue in the United States is a woman called Mary “Mother” Jones. Her main goal was to get “national attention to the health risks faced by working children,” and has one of her achievements, “on May 29, 1903, [she had] 100 000 textile workers, including 16 thousand children below 16, [walk] off their jobs at mills in and around Philadelphia” (2). This strike was one of the first steps taken towards child labour regulation in the United States. Then, as mentioned by Todd Postol and in continuetolearn.com, in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was founded, and for forty years, fought child labour industry by industry. Afterwards, the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was adopted by the congress in 1916 and voted unconstitutional in 1918. Consequently, Julie Novkov demonstrates in her research that the reason why “the legislation did not succeed through out the country is because of the fear the government had and that the manufacturers knew how to play with it” (3). In result of that pressure on the government, she divides the outcomes of the fight against child labour in two categories, the fact that the successes were on the state level and the failures on the federal level (Novkov, 2), and as a result, the government was not able to put in place one law that regulated child labour all over the country. However, in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act, which for the first time regulated child labour on the federal level. Finally, the Convention 182 was adopted on June 17th, 1999 by the International Labour Organisation as the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, which “condemns certain forms of child labor including slavery, sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and other forms of forced labor, child prostitution and pornography, and use of children in illicit activities such as drug trafficking” (Hindman; ILO). However, not all forms of child labour had disappeared from the United States. As expressed by Jongsoog Kim, Lydia Zepeda, and Paula Kantor in their research, still today there is a major lack in child labour regulation concerning the United States’ rural area, more precisely in agricultural labour force(2).

Rural Child Labour

Unfortunately, children working on farms work in poor conditions, such as being exposed to dangerous pesticides, that encounter suffering from headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, many of them are forced to work without access to sanitary facilities, they are not feed properly, they work under temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and are somewhat kept from going to school because of the long hours of work they have to attend (Human Rights Watch). Moreover, in a research on children working on family farms, it was found that the parents are more likely to let their children do hazardous work, like driving tractors at a really young age, because they do not really feel the danger of it, but see the benefits working on the farm and having responsibilities will bring to the children (Kim, Zepeda, Kantor, 3). However on family farms, children most of the time, still go to school and work after school with their parents. On the contrary, when it come to immigrant or seasonal farm workers, children do not attempt school and work alongside with their parents as young as 4-5 years old (Fingers to the Bone, 10). Most children who work on farms do so, because of poverty in their families and because, the only place of employment available for them is on rural farms (Fingers to the Bone, 10-11). Compared to family farms, where children work because their parents think that by living and working on the family farm, their children learn responsibilities, work ethics, skills, and how to solve problems (Kim, Zepeda, Kantor, 6). In the same manner, psychologists suggest that children are more likely to develop moral and financial responsibility through family interaction rather than through work experiences outside the home because the family is still the primary place for child development (Kim, Zepeda, Kantor, 7), therefore working on the family farm is beneficial psychologically for children. Meanwhile, children working on farms in general encounter many psychological problems, because their work is not supervised by their loving parents, but exploitative bosses and their conditions are far from being adequate, working long hours, not attending to school, brain damages from heat illness, depression caused by jobs uncertainty and frequent moves, social stigmatisation, isolation, among others (continuetolearn.com; Human Rights Watch; Finger to the Bones; Kim, Zepeta, and Kantor; International Labour Organization). In result to high pressure, a studied had shown that farm workers are vulnerable to substances abuse, which can take away pain and temporary make them think their life is better (Fingers to the Bone, 25). They also get down to taking drugs for performances, especially those who work at peace rate, where the pace of work determines the earnings (Fingers to the Bone, 26). Nonetheless, there are special risks faced by girls working on farms, such as, sexual harassments, and the rate of teen pregnancy on the United States farms is 54.4 per 1,000. Moreover, most of them do not know that sexual harassment is a crime and endure it (Fingers to the Bones, 35). The worst of it is if they say no, they lose their employment.

All those extremely inadequate consequences on children are caused because the laws concerning agricultural labour are not strict enough regarding children on the federal level in the United States. Therefore, this is the reason why my research will examine and analyse what has to be improved in the regulations regarding the rural child labour force of the United States, in order to protect children against any form of exploitations or harmful labour, which may have emotional, physical or mental consequences on their health.

Notes: Review of the literature

Historicizing the Figure of the Child in Legal Discourse: The Battle over the Regulation of Child Labor written by Julie Novkov

She states that two distinctions between these outcomes are the time difference between them (the successes were early and the failures were later) and the fact that the successes were on the state level and the failures were on the federal level (p.2)

She states that the reason why the legislations did not succeed through out the country is because of the fear the government had and that the manufacturers knew how to play with it (p.3)

Interpretation and political pressures had impacts on the child labour question (p.3)

Interpretation includes political people inside and outside the legal system (p.3)

The conflict in the debate had first worked in favour of the progressive forces that got the regulation. But afterwards, anti-regulation advocates manipulated the same concepts to get to their point (p.4)

The campaigns for child labour also explains the role of the interested organisations and the courts’ dealing with statutes regulating child labour. (p.4)

She tells that child labor has always been seen as a problem since industrialization age in the US, but it did not get under way until the progressive era. (p.4) Before that children were seen to be valuable to their parents where they were seen to be a good way to earn extra wages.

Important organization: The National Consumer’s League spoke about the “childrens’ terrible working conditions” and stongly suggested that consumers should not by product manufactured by children. (p.5)

National Child Labor Committee founded in 1904
Organization leader: Owen Levojoy
By 1911 the committee had 30 states that improved their regulations about child labour (p.5) and by 1914, 40 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia had prohibited some or all form of child labour. (p.6)

Keating-Owen bill which is a limitation of child labour (p.6) the bill became a law in the fall of 1916 but the law was taken away in 1918.
P.7 includes a bunch of other attempts to regulate child labour who did not successfully work.


Twentieth amendment??? Sentinels of the Republic
Pauline Goldmark; pamphlet about the conditions in the canneries (p.13)


In brief, this text explains the steps to the regulations and legislations of child labour in the US

p.21 Congress attempts to regulate

p.27 The battle over the child labor amendment

The battle over regulation of child labor shows how legal discourse influences and is influenced by the relationship among reformers, attorneys, and the courts.

This text is relevant explaining who played major roles and how did a national regulation failed to take place in the US.

Novkov, Julie, “Historicizing the Figure of the Child in Legal Discourse: The Battle over the Regulation of Child Labor,” The American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 44, No.4, (2000), 369-404, 31 January 2007 .

Notes: Review of the literature

Public Health and Working Children in Twentieth-Century America : An Historical Overview written by Todd Postol.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0197-5897%28199323%2914%3A3%3C348%3APHAWCI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8

He makes a summary of the history of child labour in the United States at the beginning of the paper. He also states numerous physical problems that occurred to children depending on their job.

Important person: Mary “Mother” Jones, who was one of the first people that focused attention on child labour. She organized many different actions to make people aware of the child labour problem in the US. Her goal was to get “national attention to the health risks faced by working children” (p.3).

Important committee: New York Child Labor Committee was formed of educators, reformers and physicians. The bill they achieved to put in place did not protect across-the-board child labour and did not protect homework and agriculture.

National Child Labor Committee was found in 1904. For forty years, armed with statistics and maps the fought child labour industry by industry. (p.4)

Important publication in Life magazine.

Publicising abuses towards children had a major impact, more as a decisive role. (p.6) and in the mid-1930’s parents rejected any form of work if it could harm their children in any way, physically or emotionally. (p.6)

Study name: When teenagers work

Relevant text that shows the progress made according to child labour and that names many important association and people.

Notes: Review of the literature

Child Labor Supply on US Family Farms: An Interdisciplinary Conceptualization written by Jongsoog Kim from the Korea Women’s Development Institute, Lydia Zepeda and Paula Kantor from the Universtiry of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?Ver=1&Exp=03-03-2012&FMT=7&DID=796942001&RQT=309&cfc=1

They state that most farm children in the United States work on their family farms. In developing countries, children are less likely to attend school full time, when in US most children do the work after school. The framework done for the developing countries does not fit for US because, and they state that risk perception should be included in the framework.

The research answers 2 questions: 1) Why do children work?, and 2) How much do they work?. This research develops a framework for children farm worker.

It states that parents decide their children’s labor supply on the family farm (p.4) and those parents are responsible for the development, education and leisure (educational activities) of those children.

The authors also state that even though children had always worked in family farms, the parents are motivated because they think, by living and working on a farm, their children will learn responsibility, work ethics, skills, and how to solve problems (p.6). Moreover, psychologists suggest that children are more likely to develop moral and financial responsibility through family interaction rather than through work experiences outside the home because the family is still the primary place for child development (p.7).
Working at home has also a big impact on communication within the closeness of the family. Therefore, country life is beneficial for children. The research puts together a bunch of economical and uneconomical facts that comes down to answering the two questions of the research.

Riddle, Just for you

Hello Everyone,

I know it has nothing to do with the course, but I thought I could put something in here to get you to think a little bit!

Here is a riddle I had to do for my poetry course!

Ocean of green light falling dark at night
Lines of bleu skies flies through calm heights
From endless white fights the yellow light
To grow powerful mixes that fixes its magical sight
Producers of wild life who help us survive
Deadly cold holds white snows
Highly seen enemies won’t succeed
Them we have as an unbreakable fortress
Who may I be? It’s yours to see!

Have fun, and if you want the answer, ask me!

Good day to you all,

Carole

As a hint, I can tell you the answer is shown on my blog!

Revised Thesis Statement

Emotional, Physical and Psychological Consequences of using Children in the Rural American Labour Force

This research will examine and analyse what has to be improved in the regulations in the rural child labour force of the United States, in order to protect children against any form of exploitations or harmful labour, that may have a negative result emotionally, psysically or mentally on them.

Thesis Statement

Using Children; Thesis Statement

This research will provide information about the history of child labour to examine and analyse what has to be ameliorated in the regulations about child labour in the United States, in order to protect children against any form of exploitations or harmful labour, that can have a negative result emotionally, physically or mentally on them.

Research Propasal 2

Using Children

The research paper I am about to do about child labour, will bring forward what still lacks in the regulations about child labour in the United States of America today, by examining and analysing what has been done and tried and what has not. Plus, I will try to bring new ideas forward, in order to abolish child labour completely from United States based on researches made by scholars.

To help my audience understand the specific vocabulary and certain ideas brought in up in the paper, I will produce an appendix and end notes that will explain more in depth certain ideas or points made by the scholars I will base my research paper on.

This topic really came out of nowhere. I am a person that is interested in so many different subjects that I did not know what I was going to do with that research. However, while searching the Internet, I saw those two words, and read about it. It seemed pretty interesting and I could not stop thinking about it. People’s right is something that really touches me deeply, especially children’s right. As soon as I read what it was, I wanted to learn more about it, and I feel like I need to. It’s worth my time and any anybody else’s time, because I think not enough people know about the subject, including me. It is a way for me to learn something new and to get other people to know about it as well. In a way, I want to teach something to the ones that will read my paper and my blog about child labour and children rights in the United States of America. Moreover, I want them to become concerned about that subject, because while reading about it, I became concerned.

In addition, when I was a child, my parents gave me little jobs to do around the house and with their company. I asked them myself because I wanted pocket money, and that I knew they had to pay someone to do the job anyway. It was not hard physically or mentally nor dangerous, plus it was never more than four hours a week and it was not every week. Moreover, it made me more responsible than other children my age, because I had a deadline to follow. That is why, I feel the need to dig deeper into that subject, in order to understand and learn how abusing children mentally, emotionally and physically, through work, at a really young age, was once admissible and is still not as strictly regulated as it should be, according to many scholars.

The first step is to read about child labour in the United States, in order to discover enough information to have a complete research paper. My second step is, as I am going to read, take notes on my computer, by numbering the texts I will read and match my notes with the text number. Then as a third step, when I will be done finding my information, I will revise the information found in order to stay as close as possible to my thesis statement, because I can end up having too much information for a 12 page paper, plus the information might not all be relevant to my thesis statement. After taking notes on what is important, my fourth step will be writing my first draft, not a complete 12 page, because I want to keep a certain freedom. As a fifth step, I will have my revising team reading it. I might finish a part, have them read it, correct it, get them to read it again, and then present the other parts, and so on. Then, the sixth part will be writing the final version and show it to my revising team again, prepare a sheet with questions for them to answer, so I will know I have included only important information and I have answered all their questions about child labour. Then, I will compile their answers, will put the final touches, go to the writing center for final correction and I will give it in.

Notes: Review of the literature

Unfinished Business : The Persistence of Child Labor in the US written by Hugh D. Hindman a professor of Labor & Human Resources at the Appalachian State University in Boone, USA.

MLA bibliography: Hindman, Hugh D. "Unfinished Business: The Persistence of Child Labor in the U. S." Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 18.2 (2006): 125-31. 31 January 2007 <http://www.springerlink.com/content/y785x9773w618067/fulltext.pdf>

"This essay assesses residual child labor problems in the Us today"

Child labor vs. child work

Child work: work that can be beneficial for children or at least nor harmful

Child labor: harmful work

“Convention #182 of the International Labor Organization condemns certain forms of child labor including slavery, sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and other forms of forced labor, child prostitution and pornography, and use of children in illicit activities such as drug trafficking, and recommends the act of placing children in these situations be criminalized.”Child labor is anything that can harm a child physically, mentally or morally according to Convention #182 of the ILO. Plus, any form of work by a child under ten years old is considered as being child labor, and all children under eighteen are protected against hazardous work.

Historically

Even though the progress was really slow, by the mid-30’s, children under fourteen were removed from the mines, mills and factories, and with all the other regulations by 1938 the child labor was removed completely from the mines, mills and factories. Children became “economically worthless but priceless emotionally”

Today

Most common freelance jobs held by girls is babysitting and by boys yard work. Other jobs such as snow shovelling, chores and odd jobs, newspaper routes and pet care are held by children nowadays. Most of these jobs held by children between twelve and sixteen are seen as a tool for children to learn to take responsibilities, gain independence and self-confidence, among other values.

But there are still children that are illegally unemployed in the United States every year and that are abused by their bosses. The most common violation is excessive hours combined with hazardous work.

Child labor in Agriculture

Child labor on family farms remains today unregulated. Children of any age can work an amazing amount of hours after school. There are three groups of farm work. Children working on family farms, seasonal workers and migrant workers, and it is more dangerous for a children working on the family farm, because they are more likely to be permitted to do hazardous work.

Other jobs were children face a rate of fatality higher than adults are in construction, were it is twice as dangerous for a children that for an adult, for that reason children under eighteen are banned from the construction jobs, in sweatshops and in child prostitution and child traffic, which are regulated, but authorities face difficulties stopping all of it.

Conclusion

Child labor is most often seen as something from the past, but it still exists unfortunately, and the causes are numerous.

General Outline

General Outline

Introduction

History facts
Situate the reader in time and place
Thesis statement

North America

Part one

Historical context

Why, where, when did it start in North America?
What were the impacts on the children?

Part two

Fight against it

Who started to be concerned about child labour?
What were the steps followed to end up with a law against child labour?

Central and South America

Part three

(Specific country)

What is their socio-economical situation?
What has been done so far to change the situation?
What can be done?

(Alternative)

North American companies

How are they allowed to use child labour in other countries?
(I know they are not, but they still do)
What can be done to regulate it? / More vigilant, more inspectors…

Research proposal

Using Children;

Why such a thing like child labour is part of our history and still exist in some countries?

The research I am about to do about child labour, I hope will help people to understand why child labour is a part of the history of North America and why is it spread in Central and South America nowadays. Moreover, I want my research to explain ways to get over with child labour.
My research will be more like a documented report. I will read a lot about the subject compile information and present them objectively, so people will be able to make their own point of view with the information I will provide.

My approach will be examine and analyse, I believe that reading about it and trying to understand the reasons and then, compiling them in my research will help me understand why such a thing exists and therefore help people interested about the subject to understand as well.
For the audience purpose, I believe I will have to had a lexical at the end of the paper and notes that will explain some of the facts and sometimes that will give more information that were not relevant to include in the paper, but that are extra pertinent information.

This topic really came out of nowhere. I am a person that is interested in so many different subjects that I did not know what I was going to do with that research. However, while searching the Internet, I saw those two words, and read about it. It seemed pretty interesting and I could not stop thinking about it. People’s right is something that really touches me deeply, and I want to learn more about it, I need to. It’s worth my time because I think not enough people know about the subject, including me. It is a way for me to learn something new and to get other people to know about it as well. In a way, I want to teach something to the ones that will read my paper and my blog about child labour and children rights and I want them to become concerned about that subject, because while reading about it, I became concerned. If abusing children mentally and physically at a young age is not worth my time knowing about, then nothing is.

The first step is to read about child labour in America, in order to discover enough information to have a complete paper. My second step is, as I am going to read, I will take notes on paper. I am not a computer fan, therefore, I rather write it on card boards. Then as a third step, when I will be done finding my information, I will revise the parts I want to do, because I can end up having too much for a 12 page paper. Therefore, I am going to keep only the information that is relevant to my research question. After taking notes on what is important, my fourth step will be writing my first draft, not a complete 12 page, because I want to keep a certain freedom. As a fifth step, I will have my revising team reading it. I might finish a part, have them read it, correct it, get them to read it again, and then present the other parts and so on. Then, the sixth part will be writing the final version and show it to my revising team again, prepare a sheet with questions for them to answer, so I will know I have included only important information and I have answered all their questions about child labour. Then, I will compile their answers, will put the final touches, go to the writing center for final correction and I will give it in.

Hopefully, now you know more why I want to do that research and what I want to do with it.

Carole

Reasons

Hello everyone and especially professor Saint-Yves,

I just wanted to say that the reason why there are no posts from last week is because I was really sick and I could not really get up from my bed without feeling dizzy, therefore I am a little late behind and this is why none of the work that was asked for is posted. I will post it later on this week. I am doing my best to catch up and I will, do not worry.

Thank you all for your understanding,

Carole

American vs. British

a) American and British English are different in many ways, first of all in Grammar. Most of the time, as cited from the book, one form is possible for one kind of English, while the two forms are possible for the other kind.

e.g. American; He just went home, or He’s just gone home.
British; He’s just gone home.

The second difference is in Vocabulary, most of the time the meaning for the same word differs from American English to British English.

e.g. Same meaning different word
America English British English
Apartment flat

The third difference is in spelling. The most difference in spelling is when a word ends in –or in American English, ends in –our in British English, or a word that ends in –er in American English, ends in –re in British English. Some of the verbs ending in –ize in American English, end in –ize or –ise in British English, and many words are different in the way their written.

e.g. American English British English
color colour
center centre
computerize computerise
aluminum aluminium

And the last difference is in pronunciation. There are many ways the pronunciation differs when comparing American English and British English, but the most noticeable one is the final ‘r’ pronunciation. In American English, the final ‘r’ is always pronounced, when in British English, the final ‘r’ is dropped, because the ‘r’ sound is pronounced only before vowels.

e.g. car, offer, turn

British English as one more pronounce vowel than American English.

e.g. dog, got, gone

b) Standard English is the kind of English spoken in London and the East Midlands after the King’s Alfred victory over the Vikings. It was the proper English to be used in the government, the law, business, education and literature.

c) Dialect English is the kind of English that is spoken by people in the streets that make mistakes because they did not learn the correct grammar.

d) The main differences are in pronunciation, the grammar mistakes, structure, use of appropriate vocabulary.

e) Languages do change over time because many factors influence it. The main reasons are the communicative needs of the language, the influence from other dialects, languages simplify themselves, non important distinctions disappear, new forms are uses, less well see forms become respectable, mistakes become part of the language, and phonetic forms changes.

What am I going to talk about?

Informal labor (includes street vending, begging, camel jockeying, portering, and other service industries)
Commercial labor (includes factory work, farming, fishing, mining, quarrying, and all other forms of manufacturing)
Subject to both conditions
No significant cases reported (white colour)

Hello again,

We were asked to post here a summary about what we want to do as a research paper, therefore, here is what I want to do with my research.

The research paper I will do for written communication 2 is going to be about child labour. I have found many references so far, and I believe there is enough work done about it for me to do a proper research. I am thinking about dividing it in two or three parts. I want to talk about the history of child labour, where did it start, why, and when. The two other parts I am thinking about presently are, whether I will talk about how it stopped, and/or what are the repercussions on children lives to work at a young age. I am most certainly leaning towards the history of child labour, this in mind; I believe I am going to focus more on the why, how and when it started and how it stopped. Therefore, I am going to analyse child labour in North America, because here, for most of it, it is not allowed anymore and is well checked upon by authorities.

If you want to read more about child labour, log on VPN and type the name of the articles that I wrote on the list below. They are all from the EBSCO Host Research Databases accessible on the library website.

** Here the word labour is written in American English because I wanted to write the exact titles of the articles **

Confronting child labor, then and now.

Child labor in America’s history

Child labor in America

Child labor in America 1908-1912

Found on Google.com

Secret Child labor in America
http://hometown.aol.com/munmei/labor.html

Child Labour
http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html

Human rights Watch: Child Labor/Child Labour
http://hrw.org/children/labor.htm

Child Labour on wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor

Child Labor: Issues, Causes and Interventions
http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/hnp/hddflash/workp/wp_00056.html

I hope this will help you to learn more about child labour,

See you all in class,

Carole

Who Am I?

My name is Carole Morin, and I am presently in International Studies, but my goal is to enter the BEALS in fall 2007. I am working really hard for it, and hopefully it will pay off.

Professor Saint-Yves suggested that I write more about me, so here it is. I was suggested to provide you with what I accomplished and my goals and what I like in order to help you all know me more. Therefore, my main interests are languages, mainly English and Spanish. I am presently looking forward to do a program which is to teach English to children in Spain, because the tour guide job I was looking forward to is not going to happen. I got rejected. Therefore, I needed to find something else, and this is what I came up with!

Now, here are my goals in life. I want to become an English teacher/ Spanish teacher, maybe at college level, but for the moment, I will concentrate on high school level, because even if I want to teach languages, maybe, this is not for me. I can’t be certain because I have never taught it. My dream goal is to travel all around the world, I want to see places, I want to do things that I know I will not do if I stay in Quebec all my life.

-This is a view of Jasper

The farthest I went in my life is in Alberta, in a little town called Jasper. Therefore, my next step is to go in Europe, which is what I am about to do. I did the program called Summer Nannies Center, which consisted in babysitting during one summer English children in Ontario. I liked it for the English but the difference between English families and French families is really different; especially, when the family you come from is in the average social class, and you get into a rich family that has no money problems. It was really hard for me to live surrounded with money and money talk, when where I come from, relationships between every member of the family is important. Maybe it is only the family I was in that was like that, but unfortunately, since I was around many families, because my family had friends that were as rich as they were if not more, I can say that having nannies to take care of your kids, even if they were stay home mothers, was more than frequent. What I remember from my experience is that I do not want to be like them, if I have children, I will take care of them myself; I will not have a stranger to raise my own children.

The jobs I had in my life are jobs that needed knowledge of the English language. I worked on a boat worth 11 million dollars during the summer between high school and college, and even if it was not a requirement to speak English, I became really useful to the carpenters I was assisting when it came to speak with other teams of workers on the boat, because they were all English speakers, and the carpenters were not. Therefore, I became the translator for every work team on that boat, and I became friends with the crew that was going to work on the boat. I almost left with them, because they did not have a French speaker that could speak English as well, but because I was not 18, they did not want to be responsible for me in other countries. Then, the following summer I left for Alberta and I had a job as a front desk agent. There I had to speak English all day long, and I came pretty useful when French tourists came in. At first, it was hard to answer the phone, because sometimes I had problems with the accents, but I finally got it. As for last summer, I worked at a place where tourists stopped by to ask information about the activities they could do in Mauricie, and there again, I had to speak English a lot.

My interests in life are multiple. I am a person that is passionate about everything that comes into my life for any reason. Therefore, that is why, as soon as I saw the child labour topic; I wanted to do a research about it. This is because I am sensitive to people’s rights and to what happens in other country that can be bad or good. What I love the most is to learn about new cultures that I had no knowledge about or situations in the world.

I hope this helped you to know me a little better,

Carole

Amélie and I

Maybe I Have Found It :D

I have been thinking for a subject for my academic research and because I am a person that is interested in every subject life bring into my path, I have a hard time finding a subject and keeping it until the end, because there are always news things that pop up into my mind. However going through prof. Sait-Yves’ blog, a subject came up on one of the pages the links brought me to; CHILD LABOUR.

This is a topic I know nothing about and that interests me because as I said in my first entry, I love learning new things, and since I am a person that really cares about humanity in general (the profile I was going to take, if I was to keep on with International Studies, was “Développement du Tiers Monde), this subject I think will really touch my feelings and therefore, help me focussing on my research.

Moreover, since I wanted focus about teaching English because I want to enter the BEELS next semester, maybe there is a way to make the two subjects all together. If not, I will still stick with Child Labour, because I believe there is information to learn about it; like, when did it start, what are the conditions that the children are facing, which countries use them the most, what is there to do about it. I know it will have to be narrowed down, my subjects are always too vague, but I know there is something to discover about that subject, and this will be my main goal.

What Is Happening With Me?

I cannot really say yet what has changed in this new year and new semester, but I know what I want to change. I want to have better marks, because I need to get into the BEELS next fall, and for that, I have to do the best I can in order to have better marks, even though they are not that bad so far.
I also want to do more physical activities. At the end of last winter, I decided to buy skates to go ice skating, but so far, I have not been skating that much because, the clod last winter went away two weeks after I bought my skates. Therefore, I planned to do ice skating every week this year, but winter is making me wait, it has not been cold enough for the ice to be hard enough to skate, therefore I am still waiting for it.
This made me think a lot about global warming. Even though I do not like winter, it scares me that it is warming up that much. We should do something about it, not only some people, but the whole world. With what happened last year in Europe and here this winter, I do not believe that still some countries are not entering Kyoto and that they do not believe that the crazy temperature we had is because of the global warming. I think I do my part, I recycle everything I can and I most of the time travel with the bus or “Allo-Stop”, which is a car sharing business.
I also have a project that is really important to me coming up. There is a government program that offers to bilingual university students to go in France for four months to work as a tour guide. I think about it all day long, and I really do not know how I am going to react if I am not chosen. As much as I know there are interesting summer jobs here, that one really represents who I am on many levels. I love working with the public, learn new information; tell people new information, and most of all, travel.
I think I might have a subject that is related to teaching a second language for the research, even though, there are many subjects that interest me and that I could learn more about. I am still thinking about it, but I will surely have an idea for next class.
In the end, I do not know yet what will happen with all that I have written here, but I will surely consult it to make sure I do follow my goals for this semester.