To work or not to work? That is the question many teenagers ask themselves, especially during high school. Surveys show that more than two thirds of high school students in the United States hold part-time jobs. These teenagers have all kinds of reasons for working, and the consequences can be positive or negative, or even both.
Why do students work? Many teens say they spend their earnings on entertainment. Fair amounts seek jobs to pay for necessities: car insurance, clothes, and college expenses. Still others work to help with their families" finances. A minority of students work in jobs that they hope will give them valuable experience in fields that interest them. The majority of teens, however, work in low-paying service or clerical jobs.
Whatever the reasons for working, students with part-time jobs wind up paying for their paychecks. Many are forced by time constraints to give up a number of activities they once enjoyed. For example, high school senior Brian Holle gave up playing football to work at his time-consuming job at Jiffy Lube. Other working teens note that they have little time to socialize and are even too tired after school and work to just hang out with friends.
Most studies show that students who work more than fifteen hours a week not only have lower participation rates in extracurricular activities but also earn lower grades than students who work fewer hours or none at all (Stern). Students who work and try to keep up their extracurricular activities must juggle those activities, school and work, to try and maintain a balance. George Kline, a high school senior, has had to learn this juggling act. George, a varsity cross country runner, is involved with literary center tutoring, and is also a very social person. He also works at Lou Malnati's 10 hours a week. "Since I started working, I've had to schedule every minute of my life," says George. He adds "At first my grades started slipping, but after a while I became more organized.
