An article in the Houston Chronicle points out that teens just aren’t getting jobs like they used to some five or ten years ago. It states: ‘in 2006, 43.7 percent of teens nationwide between the ages of 16 and 19 were working or looking for work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's down from 52 percent in 2000.’ The reasons it gives vary, but one stuck out in my mind. It said parents want to make it easier on kids and help them focus on school, homework and the extras that will help the teen get into college and, perhaps, get some college money. But what about learning through experiences? Are we teaching teens that you don’t have to earn what you want by handing them all the money they need and not requiring them to work? It has been my experience that teens mature very quickly when they start working a part time job. Do you think our generation of parents is trying to keep our kids dependant or are we still upset that we had to work so hard when we were teens that we are acting out? Or, are you like me and wondering where these statistics are coming from? Leave your opinions in our comments area.
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where is this informatiom coming from?
Andrew – did you read the article in the Houston Chronicle that is linked in the first sentence? Sources are cited there.
Denise, I think you need to reconsider. Time is fleeting, and people (like myself) tend to pile too much on our plates and never really accomplish anything. Proponents of your perspective always tote “time management” and “maturity,” but they fail to see that the more we manage our time, the more we think we can accomplish, but really theres only so much time we can apply to any set of goals. As kids, we should have our parents cramming academia down our throats. Experience? I’ve got experience out the wang but no paperwork to back up my skills!! I’m 35 and only now completing my BS. I had lots of jobs all along the way, but never once did I realize how little time I really had to manage. If my folks had encouraged study and discouraged part-time money, I’d have graduated a year early, gotten my BS at 21 and likely be a pHd in something by now. Having a job at 14 made me more dependent upon my mother; rather than fostering some desire to succeed, it made me complacent with mediocrity through my twenties, cause I was just drinking up all my unimpressive income. If I could do it again…well, you know. I’ll make sure to encourage my children to be academic, and I’ll work harder now to foot the bill for their sake. I hope you can see that turning teens into little adults denies the experience of being young and learning at life’s pace. We all wish we had taken our time as youngsters. Why then, would you propose that children should grow up faster?
I totaly agree with u with teenages not working. All these teenages do is get the government into debt because they are paying youth allowence and not contriving to any taxes . I started work at 16 iv always being emplyed .I know people that refuse to work because they studying and want to focas and have no work ethic no resect for people and expect everything to be a good plate for them .I have had it tough and I want to make a good life for myself.even when these students finish school they go to uni and go partying every wk end and there too busy socializing and partying and can’t handle a job because there too busy so in realiaty these students they don’t enter the work force until there in there 20″s (considering they don”t change uni course)
catherine, you have poor grammar. maybe school is more important than starting work early.
I agree with john,but yet i agree with catherine. Being a teenager my self,i would love to have a job and be able to do things on my own. Then they’res times when i just want to stay home and do my academics. I love to read,thats what most of my time goes towards. I know teenagers that work and do academics and can keep them well balanced. They can keep straight A’s plus work. I dont know how they do it,but they do. I myself have straight A’s and work and i keep them balanced pretty well so what im saying is work isn’t always cut out for some teenagers.
Thank for this information.