So the deal that was struck in the late 1800s and early 1900s was this: we'd take the children and teens out of the mines and factories and in return, we'd give them education so they'd be prepared to learn to do any needed task as adults.

We sort of altered that deal in the 1960s through 1990s, when industry after industry started to send their production facilities overseas. So then we pushed students to educate longer, so they'd qualify for the kinds of jobs that remained.

Now, many of those higher-skill jobs are either downsized away, exported overseas, or have far more candidates than there are openings, and we're trying to put younger teens and even pre-teens back into the workforce ... primarily because the low-skill, low-wage jobs refuse to raise their pay scales and benefits enough to attract adults.