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Child Labor Reform and the U.S. Labor Movement

ne as the labor and reform movements grew and labor standards in general began improving, increasing the political power of working people and other social reformers to demand legislation regulating child labor. Union organizing and child labor reform were often intertwined, and common initiatives were conducted by organizations led by working women and middle class consumers, such as state Consumers’ Leagues and Working Women’s Societies. These organizations generated the National Consumers’ League in 1899 and the National Child Labor Committee in 1904, which shared goals of challenging child labor, including through anti-sweatshop campaigns and labeling programs. The National Child Labor Committee’s work to end child labor was combined with efforts to provide free, compulsory education for all children, and culminated in the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which set federal standards for child labor.

There used to be a popular bumper sticker out there that said 'If you can read this, thank a teacher.' Ironically, thanks to modern educational developments, you probably aren't reading this lesson at all - you're just watching it. But you are trying to get a college education, which means you are still a product of the same educational movement born 200 years ago. Public schools, as we know them today, were few and far between in the early American republic. The Puritans believed literacy was a religious duty (so that everyone could read the Bible), and most children learned basic math and reading at home. Concerned about children whose parents weren't 'good' church members, a 1642 Massachusetts law required that towns of 50 or more people have a public school in which men taught basic literacy to boys, including Bible instruction. The most education girls typically received was at a Dame School, in which an older lady from the community taught very young children the fundamentals of reading as well as the female graces, usually from her own home - and these were not free. In the 1700s, elite, private, grammar schools opened in New England to prepare boys to enter the Ivy League colleges, many of which are among America's most prestigious college prep schools today. Throughout the Middle Colonies, individual communities sometimes opened schools to instruct boys in their language, religion and traditions. And Southern plantation owners might hire a teacher to educate their children at home. Wealthy families from every region sometimes sent their sons back to England for school. During the Revolution, many Americans (like Thomas Jefferson) believed strongly that education was a necessary component of democracy, but despite their ar