DeanBCurtis: Just curious. Where do you play basketball---HS, during hte summer, where do you want to play in college, etc. As far as the whole job thing goes. I've been busy doing something--either a job or taking classes-duing the summer since my freshman year in HS (I will now be a junior at UPenn). I think it is important to not just sit around doing nothing. However, for those who argue that a kid is misisng out on great experiences by not taking a job, that isnt completely accurate. You gain good experinces doing many many things. I know that for the rest of my life I will have a job. The normal retirement age is 65 (and the govt's age may be going up soon as they will run out of money for Social Security within the next 30 yrs), yet the average male only lives to 72. Basically, what that says is that I will be working the rest of my life and then finally retire only to die a few years later. What about the experiences of childhood--forming lasting friendships, enjoying your youth, playing basketball or football or whatever, and yes, even making the decision to try a little pot here and there when your old enough. These are also experiences that can seriously help build character, morale, and personality. While I am glad that I have been able to work in some form or another, I am also glad that this work is not fully representative of the level of dedication I will have to put in after I graduate college (i.e.-it will be much harder work for loner hours, etc,etc). ------------------ When I die I want to go peacefully like my grandfather. Not screaming like the passengers in the back seat! [This message has been edited by JayZ750 (edited July 13, 2000).]
Good comments from many of you, especially MoonBus, Grummet, Aziz da Dream, and others. (The age of some of the posters may explain their thinking on some of the posts on the main page.) Just my two cents worth. I grew up in a lower middle class family - we were far from being either rich or poor, but if we wanted "extras" we had to work for them. I worked my way through college, anywhere from 20 to 40 hours a week and full time in the summers. It wasn't easy, maybe I missed out on some of the social events in college, but looking back - I'm glad I did. I think it taught me responsibilty and how to manage my money. My kids all worked at Randall's while they were in high school, but still were able to get involved in extracurricular activities (Randall's was very good about giving the kids time off for their band activities). They all worked a little in college (at one time I had all three of them in college at the same time and that wasn't easy). I think they all would agree that they learned from their experiences, and have learned to apply them in real life. Had I been well off, would I have insisted that they work while in school? I'd like to think I would, because it is a great character building exercise. ------------------ "Who Wants To Be A Rocket?" - and probably a millionaire as well. The off-season will be interesting!
