Any power tool-including a cordless screwdriver-cannot be operated by people under age eighteen. We have lots of requests from folks wanting to come as interns, but what do we call them? The government has no category for interns or neighbor young people who just want to learn and help out.
We'd love to employ all the neighboring young people. To our child-owning and worshiping culture, the only appropriate child activity is recreation, sitting in a desk, or watching TV. That's it. That's the extent of what children are good for. anything else is abusive and risky.
Then we wonder why these kids grow up unmotivated and bored with life. Our local newspaper is full of articles and letters to the editor lamenting the lack of things for young people to do. Let me suggest a few things: diggin' post holes and building a fence, weeding the garden and planting some tomatoes, splitting some wood, feeding the chickens, washing eggs, pruning grape vines, milking the cow, building a compost pile, growing some earthworms.
These are all things that would be wonderfully meaningful work experience for the youth of our community, but you can't simply employ people any more. A host of government regulatory paperwork surrounds every "could you come over and help us...?" By the time the employer complies with every Occupational Safety & Health Administration requirement, posts every government bulletin requirement, with-holds taxes, and shoulders Unemployment Compensation burdens and medical and child safety regulations-he or she can't hire anybody legally or profitably.
The government has no pigeonhole for this; "I'm a 17-year-old home-schooler, and I want to learn how to farm. Could I come and have you mentor me for a year?
What is this relationship? A student? An employee? If I pay a stipend, the government says he's an employee. If I don't pay, the Fair Labor Standards board says it's slavery, which is illegal. Doesn't matter that the young person is here of his own volition and is happy to live in a tipi. housing must be permitted and up to code. Enough already. What happened to the home of the free?
Once again, I would like to thank Joel Salatin and thank him for these writings. He can be found through Polyface Farms. These writings are sub-headings within his "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal..." first published by Acres USA, in their magazine, Acres, in September 2003. Please share this information widely, act to reaffirm good sense in government and do not despair, We the People have both the right and the responsibility to change things for the better. This is the fourth of six installments from Joel and I will return to my own writing mid-month. Blessed Be and Namaste'
We'd love to employ all the neighboring young people. To our child-owning and worshiping culture, the only appropriate child activity is recreation, sitting in a desk, or watching TV. That's it. That's the extent of what children are good for. anything else is abusive and risky.
Then we wonder why these kids grow up unmotivated and bored with life. Our local newspaper is full of articles and letters to the editor lamenting the lack of things for young people to do. Let me suggest a few things: diggin' post holes and building a fence, weeding the garden and planting some tomatoes, splitting some wood, feeding the chickens, washing eggs, pruning grape vines, milking the cow, building a compost pile, growing some earthworms.
These are all things that would be wonderfully meaningful work experience for the youth of our community, but you can't simply employ people any more. A host of government regulatory paperwork surrounds every "could you come over and help us...?" By the time the employer complies with every Occupational Safety & Health Administration requirement, posts every government bulletin requirement, with-holds taxes, and shoulders Unemployment Compensation burdens and medical and child safety regulations-he or she can't hire anybody legally or profitably.
The government has no pigeonhole for this; "I'm a 17-year-old home-schooler, and I want to learn how to farm. Could I come and have you mentor me for a year?
What is this relationship? A student? An employee? If I pay a stipend, the government says he's an employee. If I don't pay, the Fair Labor Standards board says it's slavery, which is illegal. Doesn't matter that the young person is here of his own volition and is happy to live in a tipi. housing must be permitted and up to code. Enough already. What happened to the home of the free?
Once again, I would like to thank Joel Salatin and thank him for these writings. He can be found through Polyface Farms. These writings are sub-headings within his "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal..." first published by Acres USA, in their magazine, Acres, in September 2003. Please share this information widely, act to reaffirm good sense in government and do not despair, We the People have both the right and the responsibility to change things for the better. This is the fourth of six installments from Joel and I will return to my own writing mid-month. Blessed Be and Namaste'
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