Interesting Special Editorial by Dan Rather in the Houston Chronicle about youth and their willingness to work summer jobs. It raises some interesting questions. Should young people work in the summer? Or should they take the whole summer of and enjoy themselves? Just for grins -- try to indicate whether you are in school now -- It will be interesting to see the different perspectives. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/editorial/595541 Kids' summer jobs worth more than just money -- By DAN RATHER Maybe you've seen the news that lifeguard chairs, fast-food counters and a lot of other positions traditionally staffed by summer-job-seeking high-school students are going unfilled this summer. Why? As in many sectors of this superheated economy, there are plenty of jobs to go around. More jobs than workers to fill them. The boom in high-tech jobs has also played a hand; computer-oriented companies are paying young programmers the kind of money that was once strictly the province of the adult world. With summer camps, parks and burger joints scrambling to fill vacancies, kids who work there are finding better pay than in the past. What's harder to judge, though, is another factor in the teen-age labor shortage: It seems kids today don't want to grind it out in a job job -- they want a career job. The sort of internships and the like that will set them on the road to a profession. Opportunities that will help them meet the right people, in what they imagine will be their chosen field. And, no small matter, situations that will provide padding for their college applications. Those who have had grind jobs can probably sympathize. But it's also hard not to feel like something of value is being lost here. Summer jobs -- hard, low-paying, job jobs -- have long been a rite of passage for young Americans. These jobs represent an opportunity to earn some extra cash for Saturday night or even to salt away for college. They teach the value of a buck. And they also teach the hard but necessary lesson that you are not, after all, the center around which the known world revolves. And for college-bound teen-agers, they provide a chance to get to know some folks one might not otherwise meet. If you go from high school to internship to college to law school, you might not brush up against too many of the working men and women for whom job jobs are the only jobs. Maybe I'm biased. It was a summer job, after all, that I've often said was the making of me. I was 14 and just about to start high school. More significant, I had just spent five years -- much of it flat on my back -- with rheumatic fever. I was ready to try a comeback, and a man my father knew gave me a chance: I was to work the summer clearing brush for oil surveyors. It was hard, hot, physical labor. If the tropical heat didn't get you, the Texas-sized mosquitoes would. I was determined not to quit, and I am immensely glad that I did not. Has that knowledge proved especially useful to me in the years since? No, not especially. But what I learned about people has, and then some. If college-bound teen-agers don't get a taste of manual, even menial, labor in their high-school summers, when will they? The gulf between rich and poor in America is already great -- and now shared experience might also fall into that gap. One wonders: What will a future look like where management knows even less of workers' lives? ------------------ Stay Cool...
19, Just finished Freshman year @ TX Tech University. I am working @ Blockbuster Video right now, and for the past 3 Springs Umpired Little League Baseball Games (ages 7-13). ---- I think once you turn 16 or 17 you should have some kind of job, for at least the summer. The cost of doing "normal" teenage things is not cheap, and unless your parents just give you a car for kicks the $$ for a car will have to come from somwhere. The past 2 summers I have not worked and while it was great sitting around on my ass, it was a lost chance to make some $$. Granted $$ isn't everything, but once you get into the Senior year of High School and are planning to go to college; so many expenses come up its not even funny. And then once you start college the $$ just flows out of you or your parents hands like its water. On Rather's main point about lost experiences I agree with him. I heard Rush Limbaugh on Friday talking about a growing isolationism in this country, and while I didn't agree with all of his reasons for it I do see his main point. All throughout high school (at my suburban HS, anyway) college prep and resume building was pounded into the heads of students by parents and teachers alike. Its almost like High School students are the cocks in a cockfight. They are set up from the very beginning to not just try to kick the asses of fellow students but to also build up this facade of meaningless activities and false persona (aka resume building). Really, where is the value in doing something just so you can put it on a piece of paper, if you get nothing out of it and it wastes valuable time and energy. I mean even a 7th grade relative of mine is already streaching herself to the limit in activities (orchestra, theater arts, ballet/dance, NCL, church youth). Basically, kids aren't kids anymore. They are being molded into their classes of society that their parents are in. We probably have just a significant class system now, as they did in Colonial England, just minus the royalty (except the Kennedys). I'll sum up mine and Rather's point in this. By not getting out in the world (summer jobs or whatnot) the kids from the middle and upper class families are staying in their own little world (dare I say bubble) for all of their adolescence and are missing out on valuable interaction and experiences that can help a person grow up. Rob ------------------ visit my website @ http://home.icq.com/bayoucitybob/ 1999-2000 Sportscaster of the Year @ KTXT-FM, Lubbock [Written late @ night. I apologize in advance for any errors] [This message has been edited by Robert Snyder (edited July 09, 2000).]
17, going into senior year in high school. Never had a job, but now searching for one to cover the bourgeoisie's demands for auto insurance... "Its almost like High School students are the cocks in a cockfight. They are set up from the very beginning to not just try to kick the asses of fellow students but to also build up this facade of meaningless activities and false persona (aka resume building)." Robert- Yeah, it's pretty sad when you think about it. Now as much of a conservative as I am, one must chalk this up as one of those nasty, unwanted biproducts of capitalism... Win at all costs, and screw your fellow man, make as much as you can. Communism would do wonders for this problem(insuring everyone a job that they are best suited for), but it'll be at least another generation until it causes the gigantic class rifts that lead to revolution... Hopefully... [This message has been edited by AntiSonic (edited July 09, 2000).]
Rather is writing about the stereotypical teenager who is ignorant of the competition fed u.s. economy. I'm 16 and I don't have a job. Making shakes at Mcdonalds will not help my career. I do know of the system and have interaction with vast amounts of different people without working. Rather also writes that the physical labor will help teens. Being in the football, basketball life my entire existence has given me more than a insignificant job could ever offer. So slaving away for a meaningless credit and a waste of time is not in my agenda. Antisonic, I agree with you 100%, the capitalist rule is sickening. ------------------ please venture to atheistalliance and rocketsonline I AM SPARTACUS [This message has been edited by DEANBCURTIS (edited July 09, 2000).]
I am 15 and just finnished my freshman year of H.S. This summer I am spending almost the whole summer at my family's beach house, which is on a little resort island. I got a job at a small coffee bar/gift shop it is a fun job and I really enjoy it. I get to meet a lot of interesting people. Plus the owners of the shop are almost always there working to so it is fun. It pays good money ($6 an hour plus $1-$2 an hour in tips). I enjoy my job but in a year or two I will probably get an internship at a major computer company. I am enjoying my summer a lot b/c I work for 6 to 8 hours a day but I still have plenty of time to enjoy the beach. I know I am lucky b/c a lot of my friends are bagging groceries or doing manual labor jobs. ------------------ ~John~ If you make it idiot proof, they will make a better idiot. Houston NHL
My kids work for every dime of their allowance. They are given nothing. If they want spending money when they get to high school and college, they will get a job. Mom and Dad will not be handing out money or the credit cards. This may sound rough, but that is how you teach kids the value of money, imo. ------------------
Grummet giving your children money will not warp their minds. Teens know the value of a dollar without being forced to work. ------------------ please venture to atheistalliance and rocketsonline I AM SPARTACUS
Grummett, I agree. My parents could have supported me all through high school and college (they did pay for my college, thank God!), but they decided that it would be best if I worked for my spending money, and I'm a better person for it, IMO. However, I used to think that those kids whose parents paid for everything were all the same, spoiled brats. However, my girlfriend grew up pretty well-off. She's never had a job to this day (she's still in college). But she respects what her parents do for her, and she has never taken advantage of them once. They give her what they give because they want to, not because she asks. ------------------ Just because you're white and play basketball doesn't mean you're a Matt Bullard clone, despite idiotic accusations to the contrary. visit www.swirve.com
when i was 15 my stepdad forced me to get a newspaper route , He said if i quit the route i Have to get a job bagging groceries or something similar , I say ,I'm gonna get me some computer work and make better money than him and tell him to get a paper route ------------------ Will Work for Clutch 101 Book
Antisonic, I had no idea you were so young. Every time I read a post from you, it sounds like you've come from the same mold as me. If, in seven years, you lament the absence of strong trade associations in the USSR, look me up. Grummett, I have to say I htink you are right. I understood the value of money when I was in high school and was actually quite frugal. But when I went to college and then got a job and managed my own books, my earnings and expenses, it took me to a whole new plane of understanding. It is something you can only know by doing. Now for the question at hand. I think it is interesting the class divisions that have been noticed in this question. The question is very different between the working-class teenager and the college-bound teenager, and answering for one gets you nowhere in answering for the other. I think it is sad that working a menial job is luxury that the college-bound can chose to or not to engage in. Should the college bound engage in menial labor? For character-building? For class-harmony? To understand the value of money, or labor or people? I don't care. It's a crapshoot what people will take from things. (For the record, I'm 24. I worked as a house painter (for my father) and a sign-maker before college. Once, in an interview fresh out of college and with basically only blue-collar work on my resume, my interviewer said I had obviously come a long way from my background as a painter's son to going to a top-flight school [University of Chicago]. I was astonished. My parents have MAs; I went to private schools and lived well-to-do my whole existence. The woman sees that my father is a house-painter and thinks I'm from the projects.) ------------------ http://www.gaffordstudios.cjb.net/
DUKE used to have to work summers. When I turned NINE, my mother said "DUKE it is TIME for you to earn your beer money!!" So she made me sell GIRL SCOUT cookies door to door, that was kind of weird?!!? People kept telling me I was a pretty little girl and they wanted to buy lots of cookies. DUKE RAKED IT IN. But when I turned 10, I stopped all that. DUKE got into buying and selling some baaaaad baaad STUFF he is VERY ashamed of now and YOU KNOW what that is. Huh? Right. STAMPS. DUKE dealed stamps for two years, OH WOE WAS DUKE. Luckily the LORD Jesus Christmas forgives me (DUKE knows it even though JESUS never answers me when I aks him). DUKE also spent one summer at TACO BELL making tacoes for FAT SLOBS who would eat with their TACO-HOLES open. SCUM!! DISGUSTING!!! FLITH!! UNCLEAN!!!! DUKE could not take it. After that DUKE decided he would go to law school and be better than everyone else (and MAKE MORE MONEY) so I stopped working those crap jobs!!! ------------------ DUKE WISDOM: if a tree falls in the FOREST and crushes a leprecon is it really dead?
I don't think there are any easy answers to this one. Given the complexities of the world (length of time needed to navigate the world and being self-sufficent) I think parents should help financially with their kids as long as they can (help them get technical and educational skills that will become more and more vital), and more importantly, guide them. It is going to get harder and harder for anyone to make it without a lot of help and support. However, having everything handed to you won't help you grow up and be productive either, so I think parents need to both help kids financially/guide them, yet also help them be indepedent. It is the balance of these two that I think is the tricky part and thing we (and me when I become a parent) should strive for. ------------------ "The Rockets were ahead of the Suns by 20 late in game 2 of the series, but when the going got tough, we just Pippened . We would not be done in the series though."
I worked Wendys for two years. It was acually fun. had a cool crew and had a fine kickass manager. It may have not gone towards my 'career', but it taught me how to be responsible and respecting. I hate it when kids think they are too good to do this kind of work. In my few years of office work, the people that never did any dirty jobs were usually cocky and stuck up and many people didn't like them. Now which would you rather your kid doing? Out on the streets drinking and smoking pot all summer long or saving a few bucks and learn the real meaning of having a job? ------------------
Many teens who don't have a job aren't necessarily drop outs or smug. With myself it is difficult to work a job while I play basketball and football. There are numerous others in the same situation. ------------------ please venture to atheistalliance and rocketsonline I AM SPARTACUS
My heart bleeds for ya dude. Your too busy playing games to have to work..... Enjoy it while you can, sooner or later reality is gonna rear it's ugly head and you'll be too busy working to play games. ------------------------ ------------------
JuanValdez: I went to Chicago also! in fact, I still do, but now the law school. when did you graduate? i graduated last june, in 99. small world. ------------------
Teenagers should simply go out and go after the best opportunities the world has to offer. Flopping burgers at McDonalds isn't going to take them forward career wise, in the long run. But it can teach some of us arrogant, cocky, ungrateful teenagers what kind of thankless labour that people in other countries have no choice but to do. It allows us kids to appreciate the hard-working, 9-5 blue-collars workers. Also, it gives youth the experience and habit to deal and intereact with people from all walks of life, and tests their patience, tolerance, and motivation. If anything, it improves them as people. Of course, having a cushy office job when your 16 is nice, and looks better on the resume and potentially may be a kick-start to a life-long career. But a physically demanding low-paying job may be ideal in helping the teenager prepare for their first "real" job. At 17, I've had the privelige of working for my cousin, who is a doctor, in his office, doing his lab's bookkeeping and books. I've also had the opportunity to do a co-op term at a bank as a teller. But, my experience in doing paper routes and coaching little kids in a basketball camp (still do) may do more for me as a person, while doing little career-wise. Those experiences have made me a better teacher and much better learner, made me appreciate blue-collar workers, and increased my understanding of people in general. Living in North America, we have opportunities and choices that kids in other parts of the world don't have. Its a luxury. To me, it would be downright ungrateful to pass up a job and take our situation for granted just because we are "above" that particular job. Azim da Dream ------------------ We don't live for the destination. We live for the journey.
MoonDogg, I know what my career path will be in and it's not playing games so whats the point of getting a useless summer job? The usual reason teens get summer jobs is to make money. My financial situation is fine. Why do you have a problem with me following my dream to play at college level? ------------------ please venture to atheistalliance and rocketsonline I AM SPARTACUS
DeanCurtis, I guess you still don't get it. What others are saying is that a job does not just provide you money, but it also helps a person build character as well as see how the others (that are not as fortunate as you, financially) live. I was a bum (not literally) in my early teenage years. I didn't earn any money for my family even though we were not well off. It was until I was about 17 that I really applied myself and earn my own money. I had jobs ranging from working at The Gap, shoveling papers at the accounting office at the U, landscaping, breaking concretes, remodeling offices, and being a waiter & a chef for a restaurant. What did these jobs do for me for my career? Nothing, because I am in the computer field. But these jobs did a lot for me as far as character building, respecting others even more, and also provided me with some money. I learn how to BS while working at The Gap (it's true! ok, that's not character building, but it did prepare me for the really world.) I learn to be courteous and be a professional while working at the accounting office. I learn that digging, shoveling, chopping off and planting trees are not as easy as it seem. Since then, I've never look at people who line up on the side of the street waiting to do some physical labor the same way. I learn that breaking up concrete is even harder than landscaping. Now I know that those people who are standing around watching another person using the jackhammer is not being lazy, but merely resting for the next try. Before I worked as a waiter, I used to give 10 to 15% tip whenever I dine out. Since I've worked as one, I've never given less than a 15% tip. (unless the waiter or waitress is a total ass) I've realize some of the hard work they go through and the BS they have to take from customers/managers/owners. Oh yeah, 95% of the waiter(tress) out there make a living off of those tips, so don't be a cheap ass. Working as a cook, in addtional to appreciating HOT labor, had prepared me for when I have to cook for myself and not moan and b**** at the people who had always or who will prepare food for me. I think it's great that if a person can get a part-time job or a co-op that is related to his/her carreer path after college. But I also think that it is NOT a waste of one's time to do anything else. You can always learn 'something' from an experience. I do think youth should get a summer job. I've always value the money that were given to me, but I value them even much more when it was earned by me. I don't think youth should spend their whole summer working, they should have their fun time too. ------------------ "All doors must remain open in order to maintain proper air flow." - a quote from a US Home Customer Service Manager. I Don't Think So!!!
Still a game, my man...still just a game. You might make a lot of money at it or you might not. But it will always be a game...plain and simple. I, for one don't really have a problem with you following your dream. But sooner or later your gonna have to get a real job...so ya better wake up. ------------------
