Now that I am working full time, I’ve become very particular about how I spend my leisure time. I used to read any book I picked up, and would even force myself to finish it whether I was enjoying it or not. Now I have a cultivated list of books to read based on something I want to learn or characters I have grown to love.

I have always been intrigued by Victorian London. The stories of Charles Dickens paint a vivid picture, but I am afraid that the conditions of the poor in industrialized London are about to repeat themselves in the cities of America.

The introduction of The Street Children of Dickens’s London quotes Sybil, stating that between the rich and the poor “there was no intercourse and no sympathy between them; and that they were as ignorant, each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by different breeding, fed by different food; ordered by different manners and governed by different laws.” This is similar to how our government looks at the poor getting poorer while helping the rich get richer, as well as how little concern we have for undocumented immigrants and their children.

The Street Children of Dickens’s London is divided into two sections. The first section, 1837-1870, describes the different types of children who were living on the streets. Some were innocent and just trying to help their families by begging, selling fruits or shining shoes. Others were orphans, immigrants and runaways with no other options than to steal, cheat or find shady means to survive. I was most disturbed by the stories of the young sex workers. At that time prostitution was not illegal and the age of consent was only twelve, but somehow it was an actual crime to keep a disorderly house. 🤔

The prevalence of children on the streets of London was alleviated by the introduction of public schools and truancy officers forcing compliance. The point of these schools was to train the children for jobs that suited their station in life. It sounds a lot like American schools now. What is standardized testing other than forced memorization? We aren’t teaching kids to think, to explore or invent when the focus is to pass on specific test.

It’s funny how a book about the past makes you look for similarities in your own world. It’s like a warning not to make the same mistakes. I wonder if society will listen.

Kristie