An outlook on young adult interests and concerns

The Working Teen

By Malik Stevens

The population of working teens in America is rapidly growing. As kids get older, they want more and more, and parents tend to give less and less.

Eventually, kids realize that to get what they want they need their own money. Many go out and get jobs during the school year. To some this proves to be a plus, but to others this is not too much of a good thing.  

Teens that get these jobs at a young age and do well at them will gain benefits. From a young age, they are able to make and manage their own money and they get a head start on saving for college.

When kids use their own money, they learn to differentiate between wants and needs. When spending someone else’s money, everything ends up being a “need.”

The child will become more knowledgeable of the working world, and when they become adults it is easier for them to get jobs. Not to mention that when kids have their own money, they can afford to do the fun things their parents probably can not manage to afford all the time.

Most of the time, the children working these jobs tend to do better in school as well.

On the other hand, there are the students who do not need jobs. While working, some students forget about school. As a teen, school should always come first.

Procrastinating when it comes to school work for a job never pays off. Some of these kids in working positions often feel that because they are making their own money at such a young age without graduating high school, they do not have to do well anymore, and they get lazy in school.

Many of these kids also believe because they are making their own money, they can take care of themselves, leading them to lose respect for the people who actually take care of them. Luckily, the percentage of students who fail with these jobs is much smaller than those who do well.

When getting a job during the school year, students should make sure that employers realize the difference between student employees and regular employees.

Employers should realize that the kids are in school and that school is more important than a job while being a teen. Not only should they realize this, they should also realize that these kids need to have fun once in a while.

Sometimes the employee might have to take a day off to finish a project or a paper, or they might just need to relax and take a break. Being a student is hard.  

However, being a student employee can be a pretty nice thing. Once the student is happy, making money, has an understanding employer who values high school education, and keeps school first, they will ultimately do well. Balancing school and a job can be a difficult thing, but what makes it worthwhile in the end is the determination to succeed.