How we see childhood has changed---or has it?

The photo on top is of a thirteen-year-old boy working in a coal mine in the early years of the last century. His jobs were either to open and close the doors for ventilation in the mine or to put sprags in the wheels of the mine cars carrying coal out of the mine to slow them down. Spragging was dangerous work and many children died or were injured doing that work. If was a union-represented mine, a boy whose father had been killed at work who was in his mid- or late-teens was allowed to work in the mine with a fully-qualified miner for a certain number of shifts every week or month.

The photo below that is of  a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. I lifted it from an Amnesty International advertisement. This is where people without papers are held pending trial or deportation. "Detention center" in this case is a nice word for "jail" or "prison." Kids and young people can end up in places like this rather than, say, receive wrap-around services in a humane environment and be reunited with their families on this side of the border and enrolled in schools or apprenticeship programs. 

We still treat some children as if they were adults while some other children grow up with more and better and feel entitled before they can walk. The economy in the U.S. still depends on exploitation. Immigrants are still at the bottom of our social (dis)order. We are still breeding hopelessness, disappointment, and despair.