Do you think highschoolers should have jobs? How?
TL;DR: Highschoolers can work as much as 80 hours per week on schoolwork and necessary extracurriculars. How can people expect them to also find the time for jobs, especially in this hard economy where adults can't even find jobs?
Someone told me today that I was lazy and mooching off my parents because they give me money for food, and I don't have a job.
Perhaps in the past, it was more appropriate for highschoolers to have jobs. I am under the impression that nowadays, between the lack of any jobs period, and the fact that highschoolers have to do some much more to be competitive, it isn't practical to expect them to work even minimal hours.
In order to get into the colleges that I'd like to, I need to have excellent grades and a variety of extra -curriculars. That means I need to spend seven hours at school each day, plus two to three hours on homework. I also spend about four hours on my daily sport and creative extra-curricular, whatever they may be at any given time. On the weekends I have tournaments or performances, and time to work on longer school projects and finish homework from the week. I also need community service as part of my school requirement and college requirement, which I only have time for on the weekends. At busy times of year like this, I spend about 80 hours a week on school and my extra-curriculars.
I repeat. I am "WORKING" 80 hours per week. I may not be getting paid, but they are still necessary activities in order for me to have a future and to get a job that I want. I spend more time "working" than both of my parents combined.
I'm not alone in this, either. I may be doing more than the average highschooler, but I know plenty of people that do as much as I do, if not more. Why do people feel they have the right to judge us and call us lazy, just because we're not doing the kind of "work" they think we should?
I'm sorry to be ranty, but I really want to know; do people actually, seriously believe that modern highschoolers have time to work? It would literally be impossible for me to get a steady job, because my other obligations vary so much in time that I couldn't commit myself to any one shift. How do people expect us to work a job?
Sac: While it's unfortunate that you were badly off when you were in highschool, my family is doing okay. If we were struggling to stay afloat, I'd drop some of my extra obligations and work to help support us... but we're not, so I'm working hard to better myself and hopefully be able to better support any family I might have in the future. I don't see how I could possibly be "irresponsible" just because I'm not making money right this second.