Children’s Employment Commission
1842
- AINUL FARHANA -
W14041805
Introduction
A critical reflection on exploring the archive material adds to my understanding of the contemporary concepts of childhood in many ways. From reading the Children’s Employment Commission report 1842, I can see how children were treated in the past and how the situation changed after Lord Shaftesbury came. In the back at nineteenth century, children were thought of being very evil who had no rights and who are without any education. There were many reasons behind why they were treated that way.
Content
From the mining report I understand that the welfare of the children during the Victorian time was poor because children had to go out to work. Looking at who
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Likewise the children were also at risk working in the dark area in the mines. I strongly agree that, by looking at the picture of putters with trolley (annex 1), definitely the terrible working condition might have put children at risk every single day as there was no light or guidance for them to follow.
Viewing at the question of who was looking at the surveillance of the children, I can say that Lord Shaftesbury and his commissioners were shadowing the children and before him, the mine owners and his employees were surveing the children. With the introduction of the report, Lord Shaftesbury and his commissioners ensure that the children surveillance was taken care of.
The greatest deviance occurred after the introduction of the report as it spotted the age of every child who went to work. At the first deviance, it was proved that 6 to 10 years old child had to go to school and only when they reach above the age of 10, they could go for work. The second deviance was having a compulsory education for all the children. The third and the greatest deviance which changed the people’s mind set was that, society started to look at children
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The parents were the ones who sent them out for work. Why they had to do that was because they needed money. Even a few cents or few dollars was good enough to support the family. (Commission report pg23)
This was what Angela wrote in her book that ‘children were at a particular stage in the family cycle where they were young and there were no breadwinners in the family to boost the family income’ (Angela V. John, pg118). However, after the report came out, the government took charge of being the agency for the children as it introduced compulsory education and set a minimum working age for the children.
I would say that gender did make a difference in the mines. From the report it has been shown that the boys had to work longer hours than the girls. I came to this decision by looking at the table in the mining report that showed their working hours. (Commission report pg207) From there, I can also deduce that because of their gender, females had to work for a shorter working hours as they had to do housework at their