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Child labor unfair

Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities
5/02/12 09:43am
culture opinion
This article is one in a series discussing immigration issues through artwork and words, through the eyes of a student.
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The series & assignment

This article is one in a series created by students in Mr. Alex Escamilla's journalism class at Southwest Community Campus. Students were asked to complete artwork and write an article regarding immigration issues in Grand Rapids, and America as a whole. Students worked with artist Reyna Garcia and Grandville Avenue Arts and Humanities to complete artwork that best showed their views on immigration.

 

For more information on the project and those involved, click here.

 

All artwork will be displayed in an upcoming art show, open to the public.

 

Users may vote, comment, share, or tweet these articles up until the art show.  The student whose article and artwork receives the most votes, comments, shares, and tweets will receive a special Rapidian award.

By Jo-Ann T.

Most American children spend their school year getting an education, but some children do not. These children are the lost generation of learners. They are the children of immigrant parents. They spend their school days working in the migrant fields attending to the crops and working from morning to evening. They help with family finances.

Many people don't understand the hardships immigrant children face in the fields. Even when immigrant children are ill, some are still required to work in the fields. Many migrant children suffer from respiratory problems because of the pesticides used on the plants. In addition, they need to tolerate working in the hot sun. Many children become ill due to sun exposure.

Since many immigrant children are working in the fields, they lack the education their America citizen peers are receiving. Unfortunately, they don't know how to read, or write in English. Once they return to school after the harvest, they are very behind in academics. Often they never catch up academically.

A life of hardships continues.

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