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21 January
NO 1254
Work
Work that exceeds the demands of everyday routines, although part of the essential stuff and material upon which adolescents thrive and define themselves, is often a controversial issue in residential programs because of the possibilities for exploitation. One state, trying to regulate this, put into formal regulations for institutions that work shall be permitted as long as the institution derives no tangible benefit from it! There must be some better way to prevent exploitation than to legislate the requirement that child work in the institution have no benefit, for work without a beneficial product has no positive meaning and, in another sense, is itself a form of exploitation.
Work is important to growing people, but for work to be developmentally important, it must have productive significance that they can comprehend. Work that is of importance to the group but not to the institution is probably of a highly temporary nature (dusting, picking up one's room, waxing the floor), but these are elements in the routine of daily living that we have discussed above. "Real" work is of a more lasting nature and fits both the young doer and the facility in which the work is done.
Valid and important work experiences can also be provided for young people in care by providing them with paid work experiences outside the institution. Holding down a part-time job, such as mowing a neighbor's lawn or bagging groceries in a store, is valid work experience that does not get into the dangerous arena of exploitation. Constructing a farm fence at the residential school, or building a new walk to the cottage, or making drapes for the living room are also valid work experiences, but these tasks do enter that arena where there is right and reason to be cautious.
In spite of all the difficulties, however, work remains one of the significant ways in which young people can develop competence that they themselves can measure, from which they can derive confidence, and which provides a core for the development of positive identity. It is not something that can be allowed to be lost in a maze of bureaucratic regulatory definition. Certainly, to include work as part of the agency's program, it must be thought through clearly, and the reasons for its being regarded as education made absolutely explicit.
F. HERBERT BARNES
Barnes, H.B. (1991). From warehouse to greenhouse: play, work and the routines of daily living in groups as the core of milieu treatment. Knowledge Utilization in Residential Child and Youth Care Practice. Beker, J. and Eisikovits, Z. (Eds.). Child Wefare League of America, Inc. pp. 139-140.
