ABSTRACT
Many parents and educators worry that high school students spend too much time working at paid jobs during the school year. They fear that working long hours – especially on school nights – hurts students’ performance in the classroom. Many teachers report that their students who work long hours come to class unprepared and less well rested. At the same time, advocates of teenage employment assert that holding a job plays an important role in preparing young people for the adult labor force. It teaches some specific job skills, but more importantly it teaches responsibility, time management, the “value of a dollar,” and other valuable life skills.2 However one views teenage employment, it is clearly commonplace: a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that about two in three 16 year olds and about three in four 17 year olds held paid jobs at some point during the 1998-1999 school year.3
