High School Students on the Job

High school students on the job

We spend four years of our lives attending high school. Going through high school is supposed to prepare us for college and "the real world." Throughout these four years we begin to better understand our choices for college majors, but we don't get presented with the financial and time struggle that we will face. College costs money, along with everyday living. When attending college we become more independent and are faced with the problem of coming up with money and finding a balance between time for work and school. Though it may seem like working through high school is a bad idea, it could better prepare students for "the real world."

Having a job has many benefits. One of these benefits is obvious, earning an income. With an income comes responsibility. When a student becomes an adult, he or she has to learn to depend on their own income, and there is nothing they can do to prepare themselves for that except to begin to get a feel for the responsibilities earning an income brings. Students can gain experience by working through high school. This brings the opportunity to learn how to budget money, which is a vital part of being independent. Budgeting takes a lot of self-discipline and trial and error, but is possible to learn. It is also important for students to start making purchases that result in monthly payments, such as cell phone or car payments. Not only does this give students the ability to establish credit, but also a feel for what having bills is like. These are things that all students need to gain exposure to and begin become experienced with. It would be much more difficult to learn these things when one is dependent on themselves. It raises the risk of struggles with money.

There are many students that have the ability to stay very focused on their educational goals. These students tend to do very well academically and do not need a lot of stimuli to help them get moving. There are other students who are not in the same boat. Some students become very frustrated with the day-to-day routine of going to school. These students tend to benefit from having the option of working outside of school. They begin to see that working hard does pay off. The feeling of satisfaction they receive may motivate them to work harder at succeeding in school. They will understand that though it is a lot of hard work, the more effort they put into their education, the better off they will be. They will get higher paying jobs that suit their character if they continue to work hard through high school and go to college.

A student's first job may not be glorious. Chances are it will be at a fast food restaurant or department store. A student's first job will bring a self of satisfaction, but will also help to bring to a student's attention that this is not what they want to be doing for the rest of their lives. If a student may not be doing very well in school, it may help them to get a job at a place like McDonalds. They will see that it is a lot of work that is not pretty and can at times be demoralizing. This can work as a motivator to help a student want to do much better academically and push them to want to go to college. They will soon realize that though the paycheck they receive at that point in time may feel nice, but it is not something they