ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the process of social change that has significantly affected virtually all aspects of the lives of Nigerians who have been exposed to it. The author focuses on formal education, which has been found to have one of the most important influences on individual modernity in Nigeria. The chapter also discusses the adaptive and maladaptive functions of street trading, especially from the perspective of educational attainment. Even though changes have occurred in the nature, scope, and environment of work, the persistence of children's street trading into present time represents a continuity of past tradition. The chapter discusses the adaptive capacity for different groups of children of the value of familism or collectivism, which street trading fosters. It was maintained that early childhood working experience may constitute one of the important mechanisms by which the value of familism is maintained and the self-orientation that prolonged schooling inculcates is reduced.
