Editing Child labour (section)

==Potential positives==

The term ''child labour'' can be misleading when it confuses harmful work with employment that may be beneficial to children. It can also ignore harmful work outside employment and any benefits children normally derive from their work.<ref>For examples see Bourdillon et al pp 1-6, 180-194.  Pp 195-200 offer an alternative and more effective approach to protecting working children.</ref> Domestic work is an example: all families but the rich must work at cleaning, cooking, caring, and more to maintain their homes. In most families in the world, this process extends to productive activities, especially herding and various types of agriculture,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Polak |first1=Barbara |chapter=Peasants in the Making: Bamana children at work |pages=87–112 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gJg77Us0lWAC&pg=PA87 |editor1-last=Spittler |editor1-first=Gerd |editor2-last=Bourdillon |editor2-first=M. F. C. |title=African Children at Work: Working and Learning in Growing Up for Life |date=2012 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3-643-90205-4 }}</ref> and to a variety of small family businesses. Where trading is a significant feature of social life, children can start trading in small items at an early age, often in the company of family members or of peers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Invernizzi |first1=Antonella |title=Street-Working Children and Adolescents in Lima: Work as an Agent of Socialization |journal=Childhood |date=August 2003 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=319–341 |doi=10.1177/09075682030103005 |s2cid=145807965 }}</ref>

Work is undertaken from an early age by vast numbers of children in the world and may have a natural place in growing up.<ref name="Bourdillon 2010">{{cite book|last=Bourdillon|first=Michael|title=Rights and Wrongs of Children's Work|date=2010|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick|author2=Deborah Levison |author3=William Myers |author4=Ben White }}{{page needed|date=February 2021}}</ref>
Work can contribute to the well-being of children in a variety of ways;<ref>{{cite book|last=Bourdillon|first=Michael|title="Children's Work" in Handbook of Child-Well Being|date=2013|publisher=Springer|editor=Asher Ben-Arieh}}{{page needed|date=February 2021}}</ref> children often choose to work to improve their lives, both in the short- and long-term. At the material level, children's work often contributes to producing food or earning income that benefits themselves and their families; and such income is especially important when the families are poor. Work can provide an escape from debilitating poverty, sometimes by allowing a young person to move away from an impoverished environment.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hashim|first=Iman M.|title=Child Migration in Africa|date=2011|publisher=Zed Books|location=London|author2=Dorte Thorsen}}{{page needed|date=February 2021}}</ref> Young people often enjoy their work, especially paid work, or when work involves the company of peers. Even when work is intensive and enforced, children often find ways to combine their work with play.<ref>{{cite book|last=Katz|first=Cindi|title=Growing Up Global: Economic Restructuring and Children's Everyday Lives|date=2004|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|location=Minneapolis|isbn=0-8166-4209-5}}{{page needed|date=February 2021}}</ref>

While full-time work hinders schooling, empirical evidence is varied on the relationship between part-time work and school.<ref name="Bourdillon 2010"/> Sometimes even part-time work may hinder school attendance or performance. On the other hand, many poor children work for resources to attend school. Children who are not doing well at school sometimes seek more satisfactory experience in work. Good relations with a supervisor at work can provide relief from tensions that children feel at school and home.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Call|first1=Kathleen|title=Arenas of Comfort in Adolescence: A Study of Adjustment in Context|date=2001|publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates|location=London|first2=Jeylan T.|last2=Mortimer|isbn=978-1-135-68216-3}}{{page needed|date=February 2021}}</ref> In the modern world, school education has become so central to society that schoolwork has become the dominant work for most children,<ref>{{Citation|last =Qvortrup|first =Jens |contribution =School-Work, Paid Work and the Changing Obligations of Childhood|year =2001|title =Hidden Hands: International Perspectives on Children's Work and Labour|editor-last =Mizen|editor-first =Philip|place =London|publisher=Routledge}}{{page needed|date=February 2021}}</ref> often replacing participation in productive work. If school curricula or quality do not provide children with appropriate skills for available jobs or if children do not have the aptitude for schoolwork, school may impede the learning of skills, such as agriculture, which will become necessary for future livelihood.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=White |first1=Ben |title=Agriculture and the Generation Problem: Rural Youth, Employment and the Future of Farming |journal=IDS Bulletin |date=November 2012 |volume=43 |issue=6 |pages=9–19 |doi=10.1111/j.1759-5436.2012.00375.x |url=http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/7535 }}</ref>