In Defense of Children’s Work

A corner store opens to the street. A fourteen-year-old steps on a milk crate behind the counter so he can see over the register. He counts back change to a neighbor he calls by name and later sweeps across the stoop into a metal dustpan. Nothing he does is dramatic. But it is precise, relational, and accountable. The task places him in a web of faces and expectations. He is needed, not merely supervised.