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Is Having a Job Helping or Hurting High Schoolers?

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By Jamie Hetlage and Claire Boenitz

Many students around the school have various jobs from working at Bread Company to Plato’s Closet for the main objective of making money. Entering the workforce young lets people see a glimpse of their future. It lets you learn vital skills you will use later in life such as making money, having a good work ethic, managing your time and helping you be more prepared for adult life.

Students rely on their parents to buy everything for them, causing parents to be stressed financially. Having your own money allows you freedom to spend your cold hard cash on whatever, whenever you want. This also allows students to save money for college so later on they are not paying back massive student loans to the bank. Therefore, allowing you to show great responsibility for the future.

Nothing in life is free. This is exactly what a high school job will show you, in fact any job will. This presents students to see that they have to work hard for their money, or anything in life that they truly want. You have to put forth time and effort before you can reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

Time is something we as teenagers never have enough of. Especially while having a part-time job and school. However, managing school time, job time and personal time shows what the real world is really like. You have to plan out certain times when to do your homework or when to watch Netflix. In the real world, you can’t lounge around or play hooky. You have to man up, go to work and make money to support yourself.

This is why having a job is crucial in a high schooler’s life. It lets you see what the big, scary world is actually like.

It’s not uncommon to hear students in the halls of FHN discussing their jobs with fellow students, and in my experience, it’s typically complaints about the hours they have to work on top of homework and other school activities. Having a part time job is definitely not without benefits, however the time it takes away from students’ days and can have negative repercussions. Some students work up to seven hours a day after school, and when that’s put together with seven hours of school and an hour or two of homework, it leaves just enough time for a good night’s sleep. The problem with this is it doesn’t leave time for family, after school activities, friends and in a lot of cases, even more homework. When sorting out priorities, something must be dropped, and even if your work schedule is flexible, it demands to be near the top with school.

Work can also cut away from time that could be spent on extracurricular activities, and while it can be argued that jobs prepare you for the real world, extracurriculars have the potential to prepare you more for what you want for your future in particular. Jobs vary greatly amongst high school students but will give similar experiences, while extracurriculars offer a variety of experiences and connections to benefit you in the future. With a job, participation in extracurriculars is often limited. Lastly, high school is widely accepted as a time for enjoying yourself. Balancing work and relaxation is a skill people should have by the time they get to college, but if students do nothing but push themselves further than they can handle in high school, time management becomes less “How can I balance my priorities?” and more “What area can I afford to fall behind in?”