TEEN AGE WORKERS

Too Many Activities Affecting Achievement

According to a study in the March 2007 issue of Pediatrics, US teenagers 14-18 are working an average of 16 hours per week, many times after 7 pm on school nights and in jobs that violate federal law, such as serving alcoholic beverages. Unfortunately parents don’t see this as a problem because it fits the profile of the American work ethic. Parents with working teenagers view this as a source pride and include their child’s employment in conversations when describing them to friends.

In his book Beyond the Classroom, Professor Laurence Steinberg states that work competes with school. It is not the complement to school many parents believe it is. His research revealed that students will take easier courses so school doesn’t interfere with their job (isn’t that backwards?). The title of chapter nine in his book is All Work and All Play Makes Jack a Dumb Boy and places the blame of low achievement not with schools or teachers but what students do after school. Think about how many times you have heard over the past year that boys are under-achieving in school and not going to college at the same pace of previous generations. Do you think the lure of earning $100 a week and living in the parent’s basement may have anything to do with that trend?

The average teenager now spends up to 80 hours a week on activities that have no relationship to school or achievement (for example, jobs, social activities, gaming, TV, Internet). That’s almost 50 percent of all available hours during the school year. A person under 18 first impulses is to have fun and today’s distractions don’t help keep them focused.

If these kids sleep 8 hours per night, that only leaves 32 hours for school and related activities. If you did the math, your conclusion is they are not getting 8 hours of sleep per night since school takes up about 40 hours per week. Can you picture these kids snoozing, dozing and sleeping during school hours? Even if they can stay awake, fatigue will prevent them from concentrating and achieving excellence in school activities. Not getting a full night of sleep is extremely counter-productive and can be dangerous.

America is the only industrialized country with this imbalance towards work and school. It is ironic that the US public school system was created at the beginning of the 20^th century because it was politically the best way to get young children out of sweat shops. Parents wanted their kids to work to help support the family and businesses liked the cheap labor provided by these kids. The law requiring attendance at school settled the issue.

So now in the 21^st century, a kid with a part-time job means that parents don’t need to provide spending money (allowance) and businesses have a plentiful source of cheap labor. Working students that have a steady amount of discretionary income means these kids fuel the American economy (they are called the greatest consumers in the world). Isn’t 14-18 the target demographic for TV advertising? And of course, once they roll past 18, let’s be sure to bombard them with credit cards so we can keep them hooked on being good consumers.

It would seem the US has a choice if it is serious about improving scholastic achievement: either make working under 18 illegal or make going to school beyond age 14 optional. The country can’t have it both ways.

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