I remember lots of things about being a teenager: braces, acne, boys (!), rebellious arguments with parents, and having entirely too much time on my hands. (Did I mention boys?) Of them all, though, it was “time” that impacted me the most. It wasn’t so much the lack of homework (although I had very little); it was because as a young person, Polimom was not a “joiner”.
I started “hanging out” at a local fast food place (I can’t remember why, other than it was near enough to walk), and began pestering the manager to let me help out behind the counter. Eventually, he let me, but he was very nervous about it… and he didn’t pay me.
I was 14.
I actually got paid for my next job for a while, but had to quit when the manager decided to check id’s to collect paychecks — and lost half his workers. We’d all lied about our ages.
Obviously, we fell into the emphasized category below:
This holiday season, teens nationwide won’t be fighting each other for mall jobs. Since the 1970s, the focus on education by parents and students has meant a declining number of teens following help-wanted signs. Last year, 43.7% of teens were employed or looking for work, the lowest since the U.S. government began collecting the data in 1948.
In her opinion piece, Eve Tahmincioglu is concerned; the valuable lessons of earning one’s own money, she feels, are falling by the wayside. She may be right (not all studies agree with her figures), but she has overlooked a couple of important factors: the increasing hours spent on homework, and personality type.
All the young teens we know spend at least one to two hours a night on homework… and it gets worse (we’re told) in high school. It’s not at all clear to me why schools can no longer cover what they must during class hours, but I’ve heard it from everyone. Given the coming legislatively mandated increase in math and science credits, the demands on young people’s time is unlikely to decrease, is it?
Add overachievement or extra-curricular engagement to the equation, and there’s not enough time left for a job, which brings me to Adorable Child (AC) — my overachieving, highly gifted, socially engaged young athlete, who’s already talking about wanting to earn her own money.
What would she give up to gain what Tahmincioglu correctly sees as a valuable life lesson?
Jeylan Mortimer, professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, tracked 1,000 high school students and found that by their 20s, those who had held jobs in their teens developed better interpersonal skills and confidence than those who had bypassed teen toil. Also, many of the nation’s top CEOs worked in their teens.
Even accounting for the hyperachieving personality types those CEOs no doubt have, I’m willing to wager they had the same kind of time Polimom had — a luxury that many kids today do not possess.
I’m not sure that young people have changed, but the times sure have. Has it been worth the trade-off?
(Cross-posted at The Moderate Voice)
There’s no question in my mind that flipping burgers at McDonald’s teaches more life skills than knocking heads on the football field or studying Trig until midnight.
But I think those skills are secondary to learning and playing. American kids need to catch up academically with those from leading countries and working unnecessary minimum wage jobs interferes with that.
There’s also the question of what kids will do with the money they earn. Not all of it goes for “socially desirable” purposes and very little goes toward necessities.
Better, I think, to hit the books and, when that gets to be too much, relax by playing sports or hanging out with friends.
Also do not forget that college’s are far more impressed by kids that do lots of afterschool activities. Got a 15yo in 3 different afterschool groups, plus Band & Drama. Takes up about 10-15 hours a week, even more if he has a Marching Band competition.
Pan — how much homework does your 15 year old have each night (on average)?
I believe that colleges look for a certain amount of after school activity to begin with, not necessarily a ratio of school clubs or jobs. Then depending on what types of classes and grades you had they look more critically at your after school activity.
My college experience left me thinking I should have had more homework in high school. I was able to have a job and kept one activity that I was really interested in, but looking at the shock of college homework, I think there should have been more to prepare me.
But just saying ”homework” is vague. If in high school you get a lot of papers to write, but are going to be a math/science major, then you may not feel very prepared. Or if you didn’t have many papers to write but do in college, then the same feeling could happen. Also, the difficulty of the homework is a factor in being helpful. If in high school you still spend a lot of time on geography class just coloring maps, that only does so much for you for college prep. So having 3 hours of homework a night might be ideal to help you for college, but it really depends on what you are having to do. Maybe in the case of an easy homework load, having lots of after school activities prepares you better for being organized.
Having lots of activities looks nice compared to having none. Having something related to your major or career field looks even better, and so does having very few activities but ones that you can show you were very involved in. Colleges know at some point that you can really only “participate” in so many things, but being a “member” has no limit.