Jobs for Teens

Not all jobs are bad for teens.  There are numerous jobs that would be very beneficial for teens in today’s working environment.  Amitai Etzioni’s essay, “Working at McDonald’s,” suggests that working there is bad for teens.  He says there are few skills to be learned and also suggests that teens are wasting their time, should not work, and stay in school.  Although this may be true, to some extent I don’t think he is looking at the big picture.  What kinds of jobs, then, would be useful for teens, and what jobs would help make good choices and decisions?  I believe that there are plenty of jobs that would be excellent life-long learning experiences for teens.

One job that I think would be beneficial to teens would be working in a nursing home.  A teen often times only associates with kids his or her own age.  They may only know a couple of elderly adults, such as their Grandma and Grandpa.  If they worked in a nursing home, they would get a chance to meet many other elderly people in their community.  These people have countless stories to share about their lives.  Teens could learn about how it was to live in different times.  They would learn about how it was for these elderly people when they were teens.  It would give them a little history about how their ancestors lived, and I think that if they knew this it would help them not take the things they have for granted.

Another valuable lesson that could be learned by working in a nursing home is something that probably many teens haven’t had to deal with.  This is the death and dying process.  They may not have had to deal with this issue much because of their age.  Some teens in today’s society may have if they were or are involved in gangs and lived in poverty.  Then I think the death and dying process would be useful to these teens.  It would show them that they aren’t as invincible as they think they are.  It might give them incentive to want to live to an old age, watch their diets, and take care of their health.  This would help them to live and do better in life.

Working in a day care is another good job that would be beneficial to teens.  I believe this would be very useful in teaching teens parenting skills and responsibility.  Taking care of and raising a child is an endless task that takes a lot of patience.  Teens would have hands-on experience changing diapers and feeding babies and toddlers, not to mention the fact of having to put up with a child who is cranky and doesn’t want to take a nap.  If teens had this kind of job, they would see how hard it is to raise a child.  I think that with the teen pregnancy rate so high, this might deter many teens from having children when they are still children themselves.

Working in a drug and alcohol rehab center is another example of a job that would give teens insight into some of life’s challenges, and has numerous life lessons.  I think the lessons that they learn here are very valuable to many teens.  They would see how people’s lives are destroyed and families are ruined when people abuse drugs and alcohol.  The people who are here need help for their addictions, and often times receive counseling for their problems.  They may get suggestions on how to deal with things in life that are too stressful to deal with otherwise.  If many of them didn’t receive this kind of help, they would be stuck on a downward spiral that could and probably would ultimately end in death.  Teens who worked in this kind of environment would see this and get first-hand knowledge from the people who are going through it.  This job also has a life lesson that can be learned by many teens.  It may deter many teens from using drugs and alcohol.

There are many other jobs for teens that would give them important lessons and skills for many things in life.  Some jobs just have better life lessons to offer than others.  Anything teens do in life has a lesson that can be learned, whether they learn it in school or on the job.  Taking into consideration jobs such as working in a nursing home, a day care, and a drug and alcohol rehab center, I believe that not all jobs are bad.  I believe there are plenty of jobs that have excellent life-long learning experiences for teens.

(6 paragraphs, 773 words, 3 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font)