Child Labor

             One of the main reasons children in Mexico are not getting a formal education in Mexico is because they have no choice but to work to try and support their families.  One out of every eight children in Mexico currently works, which is around 4 million children (Salmann).  To Many children who work do not have a chance to even attend school, and four out of every ten children who work never get to see the inside of a classroom (Salmann).  The children, who are lucky enough to attend school, often do not have time for homework, which results in poor academic performance. 

            An example of a child who works and goes to school is Axel.  Axel goes to school in the mornings, and then works as a vender selling potato chips every afternoon.  Between work and school, everyday is a 12 hour day for him.  When he finishes his day at 9:00 at night, he walks to a dwelling at the corner of the street, where he lives with his parents, and a total of 13 siblings and cousins.  By the time he gets home, he showers, eats dinner and then goes to bed, with no time for homework.   Axel does not mind that he has to work because he knows he is supporting his family, but he does not want his schoolmates to know because they once made fun of him and mocked him when they saw him at his job (Salmann). 

Axel at his stand.                    manuel.io

            Unlike his schoolmates, numerous Mexicans do not have the same ideas about child labor.  Many families do not have the choice but to make their child work, and those families that do have a choice, may not realize the developmental damage child labor causes.  Child labor is a common occurrence in Mexico, and many people do not even think twice about it.  There is a mentality that child labor is not harmful, maybe because most children do not work in factories, but instead work at stands or out in the fields, which are jobs that don’t seem very dangerous.  These people do not realize that it is not the physical tasks that are harmful, but the time they consume that is the problem.  Children who work do not have time to go to school or have no time for homework.  This leads to high dropout rates that lead to the children getting low paying jobs as adults, forever stuck in a poverty cycle.