- Sawsene Nejjar is a student at L'Ecole de Gouvernance et d’Economie, a private college in Rabat, the capital of Morocco. The summer after her first year at the school, she prepared for an unusual aspect of her education: an internship selling furniture at KITEA—think French Ikea.
This is unusual? It might just be a Dutch / European thing, but it's common here for youth above 16 to have a small, part-time job alongside their education. Around 60-70% of college students have a bijbaan, 'side job', to give you some money to spend while studying. Usually something low-wage, like cashier, filling shelves in supermarkets, working in restaurants or offices. I've had two summer jobs and I'm on my third side-job now in college. Most parents expect their children to work part time, instead of dumping money on them all the time. It's less common with richer kids, for sure, but they are often enough pushed by their parents, who will make them to get a job by not giving them money for a while. It's great, it teaches work ethic, handling money and dealing with responsibilities. And it exposes you to a much larger range of people. I'm currently working as a tutor for struggling high school teachers, and it's really great to help students from all levels of education.Nejjar’s internship did exactly what it was designed to do—expose her to people different than she is and teach her about power dynamics along the way.
I would like my kids to appreciate hard work but I also would like them to recognize that studying is also hard work. I appreciate manual labor, I did a ton of it growing up. I would like my kids to know what it's like to put your back in to your living, but not at the expense of other pursuits. Working as a tutor would be a great job for someone in college. My wife taught Kaplan classes in the US during school. She was also a substitute teacher at a Juvenile Detention center. -She has some great stories about that one.Around 60-70% of college students have a bijbaan, 'side job', to give you some money to spend while studying.
I waited tables at night and on my off days from class I painted houses. I worked a lot during school which is one of the reasons I did so poorly imo.
Well, I've never put more than 40 hours per week into studying, often less. So a little job of 4 / 8 hours (two evenings or half a Saturday) mostly cuts in on social time. In return, you can afford to do more social things like go to a concert or a movie whenever you want. So I doubt it's detrimental. I really love tutoring. I'd rather work by thinking than by doing, and when I work I get to help people. I'm not in front of a class though, and the kids aren't in detention. That must be incredibly hard. The downside to my tutoring is that there's no work in the summer, when I (and the kids I tutor) have summer holiday. So I'm gonna have to find some work to do then.I would like my kids to appreciate hard work but I also would like them to recognize that studying is also hard work. I appreciate manual labor, I did a ton of it growing up. I would like my kids to know what it's like to put your back in to your living, but not at the expense of other pursuits.
As a teenager, it took me about two seconds to figure out that money = freedom. That's why I went out and got a job as a 14 yr old (actually, I had a paper route at age 11, but that wasn't very serious). Never had to worry about begging my parents for cash, especially after I turned 16 and needed gas money. Having a paycheck that you worked for and can dispose of the money however you please is a great feeling. On top of that I picked up some pretty good management skills along the way that have helped me in my adult life a lot. I work in an industry where many people never had a real job until they got out of a billion years of college and sometimes it really shows. There's a reason I've been able to climb the ladder a lot quicker than many peers, even though I went to a small, unknown university, almost failed out of high school, and have a general lack of respect for authority. School is overrated.
I completely agree. If it were to have any sort of impact, it would have to be real. Knowing a pain is temporary makes it far more tolerable and working a tough low-wage job only to be carrying mommy and daddy's credit card in your wallet has little impact, is my guess.