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Pastimes : Where the GIT's are going -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (185388)	10/25/2009 10:02:05 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 225578

If teens don't work, they'll pay in the long run By Eve Tahmincioglu Teenagers are working their tails off in school and at everything from violin lessons to swim team, but fewer are working for the money these days, and that means they're missing out on a key rite of passage. blogs.usatoday.com Witness Tim McBride, 16. The last thing he's thinking of is making minimum wage flipping burgers. As a sophomore majoring in cinematic studies at the Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington, Del., he has already made a prize-winning documentary chronicling the state insurance commissioner's race. He is also vice president of his student council, an attorney in the school's mock trial competitions and an elder at his church. In addition, he spent the past few months volunteering at night and on the weekends for Beau Biden, son of U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, in Beau's successful bid to become attorney general of Delaware. "My dream is to become the president of the United States," Tim says with pride, and he's doing everything he thinks will get him on the path to greatness — except holding down a paying job. His mother, Sally McBride, likes it that way. She has encouraged her son to concentrate on academics and extracurricular activities that will help propel him in his career. A job, she says, is not a priority. Work not in the cards This holiday season, teens nationwide won't be fighting each other for mall jobs. Since the 1970s, the focus on education by parents and students has meant a declining number of teens following help-wanted signs. Last year, 43.7% of teens were employed or looking for work, the lowest since the U.S. government began collecting the data in 1948. The decline is not only among teenagers whose families are in the middle- and upper-middle classes. Studies show that the number of teens from all socioeconomic levels in the workforce has been declining, says Daniel Aaronson, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The trend means that teens such as Tim are missing out on a key experience. According to research I've conducted for my book, which includes interviews with more than 50 CEOs and leaders from all walks of life about the lessons they learned during childhood and early careers, punching a clock leaves a lasting, valuable mark. Values of working Jeylan Mortimer, professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, tracked 1,000 high school students and found that by their 20s, those who had held jobs in their teens developed better interpersonal skills and confidence than those who had bypassed teen toil. Also, many of the nation's top CEOs worked in their teens. Matt Blank, of Showtime Networks Inc., told me that his first job at age 16 was working in a store's lingerie department making $3 an hour. He was fired for not following orders. "I was devastated," he recalls. His lesson: "The work world isn't always fair." Tom Glocer, CEO of Reuters Group PLC, says his stint as a bike messenger at age 17 (in which he was treated like dirt) changed the way he looked at things. "They assumed I was a dropout and stealing cars in my spare time." His lesson: "You never know who you're dealing with," so "treat people with respect regardless of their positions." Another priceless lesson these leaders said they learned was that money doesn't grow on trees. Tim's parents pay for his cellphone; they bought him an iPod for his birthday and give him spending money if he wants to go to the movies with friends. "I've spoiled him," Sally McBride admits. "If he could fit a job in, it would be a valuable lesson because I don't think he knows the value of a dollar." As a mother of a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old, who are probably already a bit self indulgent, I'm hoping our children will be not only book-smart but also working stiffs during their teen years. Eve Tahmincioglu is author of From the Sandbox to the Corner Office: Lessons Learned on the Journey to the Top. She's also a columnist for MSNBC.com. * * *