Re: Amen

Absolutely. I think all kids at around age seven or eight should be given an opportunity to work as adults. Most kids have decent reading, writing, and arithmetic skills by this age. The jobs could be targeted to help them get a feeling for what sorts of positions they would or would not enjoy when older, as well as demonstrating to them the importance of their educations to reach these ends. This experience could be used to tailor and direct their education from this point forward, thus ending today's "cover all bases" scattergun approach. The exact logistics would of course have to be figured out - what to start them out with, etc. This program could last for one year, and I see no reason that the kid couldn't get a taste of several different lines in that time. A few side benefits:

1. Participating companies would have constant injections of fresh perspective (imagine the money Mattel would make should they have a team of seven year-old toy designers)

2. The children could be paid a wage (commensurate with performance, of course) with a small amount going to them and the majority being rolled into an interest bearing trust that could later wholly finance their college education.

3. Think about how much more understanding children (esp. early teens) would be of adults once the kid had seen the rat race first hand.

4. I also feel that the child would benefit enormously from having a definite goal to work toward throughout their school years i.e. "I want to own a veterinary clinic," rather than something hazy like "I want to work with dogs."

Could it work? Who knows?
It does sound like adventure and fun for all involved, regardless.