I was the first male in my family that even got to go to high school. It was pretty typical at age 12 or 13 to take the boys out from school to work the family business. Both my uncle and my father are incredibly successful despite having an 8th grade education.
I am not saying any of that is right but you look at the sort of rainbow flag, learned helplessness, social engineering nonsense that comes out of public school and I can't say getting kids to work young is the worst thing in the world.
Of course in my family's case the business was powerlines not burger flipping.