Children and Work

I started worked during the summer when I was 15. Then I had a job during the school year when I was 17. I did not work long hours. I only worked 4 hours every Wednesdays and 5 and half hours every other Saturday. I worked at the local public library. I put away books, and checked in and out books. It was a great job I really enjoyed the people I worked with and the environment I worked in. I worked during school to have a little bit of spending money. I didn’t really need to work when I was in school, but the hours where great, the schedule was flexible, I worked with nice people, so I decided why not. I think working while still in school is not always a good thing, because sometimes children work too much and that distracts them from their school work. Some of my friends worked after school from 10-11 at night. They had no time for homework and were extremely tired during school. I think school needs to be a priority when you are in school and their parents should be supportive of that. I do understand that some children and teens need to work, because of their family situation. I thought it was interesting that the article ``Child Labor and Education`` came up with different options for helping children combine work and school more easily by having more flexible hours for students work schedule, and having course content more relevant to the lives of working children. This made me think of scheduling at a college or university level. Some college or university student’s work and work around their school schedule. I think maybe with children having to work so young it is taking away from their childhood and there education. I do think work does help teach children responsibly, but school does that also, as they have to learn to get their homework done on time and study for a test coming up. The purpose for school is to get children ready for their future life, which would hopefully be some type of job, so schooling should improve their work ethic and should help them be a well-rounded human being.