Working As A Teenager

Jenna Marlow

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Working as a teenager is nothing new, however, the game has changed since our parents went through the same thing. Twenty years ago, teens got jobs for financial stability, but now it is thought that most high schoolers get a job to be with their friends or to have spending money. When adults hear a teen talk about the stress of their job it is ignored because they believe something they would have considered easy couldn’t be stressful. The high school experience is different for a student with a job. Everything is planned around work. Whether that is being able to go to football games, after-school events, or hanging out with friends. Students who do not have a job do not have to worry about important deadlines as the students that do. The simple routine of getting up and getting to school does not seem that difficult for most, but after being at school all day and then going straight to work for four or five days a week your feet start to drag in the mornings and you start resembling a raccoon. These students want to accomplish the education that the real world can give them. Generation Z strives to be book smart, but they know you cannot survive being an adult without common sense. So for the teachers who yell at a student for being late to school or not meeting a deadline once in and while, remember this; when a teacher's day ends, a student’s might have just begun. Be proud and engage with your students about their jobs. A teacher and a high school employee have a lot more in common than you might think.