Taken from Growing Concerns -- A childrearing question-and-answer column with Martha Erickson

Question: I'm in a support group for parents of teenagers, and one of the issues we discussed lately is whether high school kids ought to have jobs during the school year. What are your thoughts?

Answer: Many teenagers today are juggling school and work, racing from the classroom to the cash register then back home to study for tomorrow's exam. While there are many longterm benefits of work, there can be a downside too. There are a couple of important questions to consider. First of all, what are the advantages and disadvantages of being employed during the school year? And then, if teens do work (by choice or necessity), how can parents help to make sure that schoolwork and other important parts of teen life are not sacrificed?

On the positive side, being employed has several advantages for high school students :

· It helps develop responsibility and time management skills.

· It gives an opportunity to acquire specific job skills that might transfer to subsequent work situations. Not the least of these are the people skills that will serve a person in any chosen field.

· Being employed can help a teenager build a resume and establish references that are helpful in getting future work.

· And, plain and simple -- work means money and at least a beginning of financial independence.

On the other hand, employment during the school year has disadvantages too:

· It may interfere with schoolwork and academic achievement.

· It competes with extracurricular activities and social experiences that are an important part of adolescent development.

· It may exacerbate the sleep deprivation that is a problem for many teens, whose natural body rhythms often are not geared for early-morning school starting times.

· The kinds of jobs available to teens are not always in their best interest. For example, some jobs utilize very low-level skills and therefore do not move the student toward higher levels of personal development. Also, employers sometimes take advantage of students' youth and inexperience, giving them the worst shifts or treating them unpredictably.

If teens do choose to work, here are some ways for parents and teens to make the most of the situation:

· Agree to make schoolwork the number one priority.

· Parents set clear expectations about the conditions of acceptable employment (e.g. type of work, how much, contingent on maintaining good grades).

· Teens clarify expectations and conditions with employer (for example, essential time off during finals week; must finish work by a certain hour on school nights).

· Consider working only during school vacations and/or weekends.

· If money is not the issue, consider an unpaid internship that will serve the teen's personal growth and longterm career interests.

Editor's Note: Dr. Martha Farrell Erickson, director of the University of Minnesota's Children, Youth and Family Consortium, invites your questions on child rearing for possible inclusion in this column. E-mail to mferick@tc.umn.edu or write to Growing Concerns, University of Minnesota News Service, 6 Morrill Hall, 100 Church St. S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455.