Today the
United States is experiencing an influx of immigrants as large
as that which took place around the turn of the 20th century.
By looking at that earlier wave of immigration, we might learn
about the hardships and challenges faced by immigrant children
today.
The turn of
the twentieth century witnessed the discovery of two social problems:
child labor and child abuse. Throughout history, most children
had labored to help support their families. A new generation of
reformers sought to free children from harsh physical labor. They
sought to create a childhood devoted to play and to education.
Meanwhile,
other reformers identified child abuse as a serious problem and
created Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to
try to solve this problem.
Essential
questions:
1.
What was it like to be an immigrant child in turn of the century
America?
2.
What problems did they face in adjusting to New World conditions?
2.
What were the conditions that children labored under?
3.
Why do you think that child labor became recognized as a social
problem at the turn of the twentieth century?
4.
Why did it take a quarter century before child labor was outlawed?
5.
Why has it proven to be so difficult to solve the problem of
child abuse?
