Child labourers a history.

7 Oct 2005-5 Jun 2006. The Workers Museum Arbejdermuseet in the Danish capital is hosting a special exhibition illustrating the plight of children from working-class families from the early 1900s right up till the 1950s. Obliged by necessity to help make family ends meet, some had to leave home and work as farm labourers from an early age attending school was a luxury many could not manage. Teachers often complained of children falling asleep over their desks, that is if they even showed up for school at all. It was not until 1958 that a school law was passed which guaranteed that all Danish children should have at least 7 years of compulsory education. The 1960s brought prosperity and improved standards of living, however some children still had wage-earning work even while attending school. Even today some jobs, like paper rounds, are seemingly exclusively childrens work but now their earnings are more likely to be spent on designer clothes or toys rather than on food or bills. The exhibition uses photos and oral histories to recreate the hard lives children lived before the 1950s. One example is the childhood of Niels Christensen, born 1925, the eldest of 7 in a working-class rural family, who recounts his memories of leaving home at the age of 10 to work as an agricultural labourer, spending long hours in the fields, and walking 2 kilometres to school every other day. Things are no longer like that in Denmark, but a glance at the Third World reflects a reality that for us is 100 years old. Admission Adults Dkk50 children aged 7-13 Dkk30 Daily 10.00-16.00.