study of redshirting (late entrance to kndergarten)


2008-07-25 02:26:07 PM
Beliavsky <beliavsky@aol.com>wrote:
Quote
On Jul 24, 8:19 pm, Bob LeChevalier <loj...@lojban.org>wrote:
>Beliavsky <beliav...@aol.com>wrote:
 >>Letting some very bright children skip kindergarten and enter 1st
 >>grade directly would save school districts money, and years later they
 >>would start working (and paying income and payroll taxes) a year
 >>earlier.
 >
 >You don't get it. We don't WANT them starting working a year earlier.
 >As much as possible, we want to keep kids out of the workplace,
 >because they take jobs away from people who have families to support.
Learn some economics.
All the economics theory in the world won't change the above. That is
one of the reasons why compulsory education was instituted, along with
child labor laws. It is a fundamental belief of our society that kids
should be low priority for employment (as women used to be).
Business of course likes cheap, no benefits employees, and the kids
like to have money, so without child labor laws and compulsory
education, things would be much worse
(a teenager I met today is from a family of 8 kids in Texas, and he is
the only one of them to finish high school, and it took him till age
20 and living with relatives in Virginia - all of the others dropped
out to go to work as soon as the law allowed them to do so).
Quote
There is not a fixed number of jobs, because there is not a limit to human wants.
There is a limit to resources, and we'd better LEARN to limit human
wants, or we won't have a planet worth living on, but that is beside
the point.
There may not be a fixed number of jobs, but a large low-cost labor
force in a field depresses wages, because they can always fire an
expensive householder with family benefits and replace him by a kid
who will work for minimum wage and no benefits.
This is one reason why "traditionally-female" jobs have historically
paid less regardless of the level of skill and responsibility required
(most relevantly in the K/12 classroom). Women are paid about 70-75%
of what men are paid, and men who choose "women's work" (i.e. same job
title) tend to get lower pay.
In the same way, people who work in arenas where lots of kids work
tend to get minimum wage and minimal benefits. Because employers CAN.
Quote
Population growth and an
increasing proportion of women in the work force has not lead to mass
unemployment.
But it may have led to a drag on wages in those fields where women are
most numerous.
Bob LeChevalier - artificial linguist; genealogist
lojbab@lojban.org Lojban language www.lojban.org
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