Employment during school is tough. If you are in honors classes or does any extracurriculars, holding a job could be almost impossible. Jobs that will work with a school schedule will usually not let you work the hours it would take to dodge extracurriculars. Plus, school work should always come first.
School is a job.
I’m going to repeat that for the people in the back row.
SCHOOL IS A JOB.
As a high schooler, I worked from 8 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon as a student. From there, I worked from 3 until 5 as a debate student. Then from about 6 until 9 or 10, I worked as a student from home.
When was I supposed to work? From midnight to 7 AM?
Imagine if that were your work schedule. Wouldn’t you find it crazy if someone told you to “get a real job” to “prepare yourself for the real world”?
That’s crazy. Students already have jobs, and they’re more important than any minimum-wage gig a high schooler could get.
Of course, some kids do it out of necessity. The kids I knew who had jobs took very few classes and weren’t able to do extracurriculars (or if they did, they struggled to do well because they could never go to practice). If that’s the ideal for you or is necessary, then go for it.
Kids have their whole lives to work when they become adults. Don’t start them now by force.
Let them be a high schooler. They have a big job to do.