Head2Head - Students SHOULDN'T have part-time jobs

Written by: Janna Wing '12

        

       Having a job takes a lot of time, effort, and responsibility. During the school year, your focus should be on your studies. As your senior year approaches, having great grades, attendance, and involvement in extra curricular activities are important in getting accepted into colleges. Student’s grades easily start dropping when the work load increases.

         Although jobs could be beneficial, high school is a busy time in a student’s life and managing time can be very difficult when dealing with the pressure of a job on top of school work.

         As students strive to find a part time job during high school they usually believe that they will work a limited amount of hours a week, but what they don’t realize is, as a minority, the employers often pressure them to put in more hours a week. During holidays, stores begin to also increase work load and as the stores get busy they will make the employees do a lot of extra hours to keep everything on track. With their already busy schedules filling up quickly, the time that students need for school work is decreasing rapidly. Students need to see that they are only part-time workers. Is it really worth getting a job that has low pay and requires little skill that does not stretch them mentally and teaches them little compared to school?

         High school is much more then lessons. The best times of high school take place after school. The time that is not spent doing hours of school work should be spent hanging with friends, family and going to school events. We are still young and should enjoy our childhoods before we have to enter the real world where work is necessary. Having a part-time job will make you miss out on these opportunities and memories that can’t be remade.

          A part-time job during the school year can be too overwhelming. During the summer would be a more appropriate time. Grades are too important for college. Students need time to experience life, grow up and become well-rounded individuals. Having a job can feel as if your being pushed into the world of work way to quickly.

Head2Head - Students SHOULD be able to have part-time jobs

Written by: Kaylee Heinz '12

         I believe that high school students should have a part time job of some sort. High school students have a part-time job for a number of reasons. A few of those reasons may possibly be necessary for the individual, desired and or required.

        I feel that having a paid job is a normal part of growing up. For centuries teens were ordinary members of the workforce. And since education became essential, hundreds of millions of students have successfully combined school work with a part-time job. I have found that working a few hours outside school does not harm achievement, so there is no reason to veto the idea. Even if having a job did affect student’s education, teens are old enough to make that choice for themselves. It should not be forced on them by an official banning.

        About two-thirds of high school students have jobs. Just under half of those students have jobs that money is dealt with under the table like babysitting or mowing the neighbor’s lawn. Therefore, money is not deducted due to tax purposes. Students who are on official payroll, about two-thirds work in food service or other retail businesses, such as beauty salons or grocery stores.

        A major reason why high school students work is for extra money. Most teens work because they want the money, but a part-time job can have other benefits. I feel that high school students should have a job to be able to be independent, instead of relying on mom and dad for everything. Therefore, students might also even work to help their parents out economically. I think that you should consider having a job especially if you do not participate in any extra curricular activities after school. High school students that are considering their future may possibly even save money to attend a secondary school, Parents can also have a lot to do with why a student is working while in high school; they may force the student for the reason that it is able to give them work experience that everybody needs.

        Communication, teamwork, and leadership skills among their peers can be more important than technical skills. Having a job can also lead to the student to start being more responsible and not having to rely on their parents for everything. It could make kids grow up and have a better outlook on his or her future. I believe people must trust us teens to find our own way in the world, deciding which opportunities we will take. For most students, getting a part-time job is an important way of gaining independence. If we keep students wrapped up safe at home and school, they will never develop an adult identity. The danger then is they won’t be able to cope when they have to go to college or leave home for the first time without their mom and dad.

Nusquam Abscondere

Written by: Isaiah Bellville '12

          The nice part about having my own column in the newspaper is that I can pretend like everybody cares about my problems, write about them, and have them published. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

          I love being editor of the Opinion page too. I love listening to other people’s opinion on subjects. I’ve always wanted to have a special segment of the paper dedicated to letters to the editor, but we haven’t had enough feedback to actually keep it going.

          The best part of people’s opinions, are that they sometimes conflict. I find it amazingly interesting to get the point of view of two different people on the same subject, especially when they are passionate about the subject. I find that listening politely to someone’s argument, whether you agree with it or not, is the best policy for effectively learning about both sides of a subject.

          There are subjects, though, where people are a little too passionate. When people start talking about these arguments, I usually choose not to listen, and walk away. It’s the safest option sometimes. It’s sad that even bringing up these subjects can send people into a violent rant on the subject, and how wrong the opposing argument is. It’s perfectly acceptable to disagree with someone’s opinion, but to ridicule and belittle someone for their opinion is plain ignorant. It shows a level of immaturity that says that you aren’t ready to argue about the topic yet.

           I find it disheartening that these topics cause so much unrest in people that I was told I would be censored if I even remotely mentioned them in this article.

I understand that people feel strongly about some topics, but the anger and hate that some people profess to having towards opposers of their beliefs.

          When I was at a Grand Rapids Art Musuem festival, I met a Ms. Steele. Ms. Steele was an author, who wrote for magazines, but also had her own book on teaching. She told me that her favorite thing to study was the "Third Side". She explained to me that the Third Side is the part of the argument that neither other sides take into consideration. She told me about how silly it was for someone to completely disregard the points that the opposing side of an argument has, believing instead that you should listen to both sides of an argument, and then fromulate your own opinion.

           Dictionary.com defines an opinion as: "A personal view, attitude, or appraisal." Personal. An opinion is personal. It is something that you hold to yourself, and believe by yourself. Not something others need to believe in. Dictionary.com also defines it as: "A belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty." Opinions are not facts. Everyone is entitled to believe what they wish.

            Try to listen to someone else’s opinion on something today, and don’t judge them. See how it works for you.

This side of the net

Written by: Carly Darrow '12

            It’s that time of year again. The time of year where the leaves change color and slowly start to fall, where businesses start selling hot chocolate, pumpkin patches and cider mills are busy with customers, and the fall jackets start to come out of the closet.

                Agreeably, fall is one of the most beautiful seasons, what with its leaves turning magnificent colors and hearing the crunch of them under your feet as you walk.

Or maybe that’s not your favorite part about fall? Cause it’s not my favorite part either. I adore Halloween more rather than the leaves or the cooler weather.

Scary movies, haunted houses, costume parties, free candy, and scary stories. Fall is eerie, and what could be better than getting scared and feeling that adrenaline rush?

Though most people don’t exceptionally love being scared like I do, there’s the costume aspect as well. The best part of dressing up is getting into it and “going all out”. It annoys me to see kids wear their street clothes on the night of Halloween and a mask or the girls wear cat ears as their costume and go door to door just to get the goods.

Don’t we remember what it was like as a kid? Sitting at home getting ready and having your mom take a thousand and one pictures of you. Watching it get darker and darker outside as you nag at your parents that you are ready to go. As the siren finally blares on that October 31^st night signaling the start of trick-or-treating, and then it really begins.

You bound around dark streets while other children are running door to door and are comparing costumes. Your parents trudge behind you and tell you to slow down and remind you that there is time. And you do the most important job of all; making sure that every house in the neighborhood is hit, because none can be left behind until that siren blares again. You go door to door and say the phrase that has been engraved in your head and you have been waiting to use.

“Trick-or-treat!”

So what has changed since then? Amicably, your costume choices begin to change. Instead of picking you’re favorite superhero or being the prettiest Disney Princess, you begin picking what looks best, what’s more popular at that time or what may be more humorous to you and your friends. And then in middle school and high school some people stop dressing up altogether, a personal choice I suppose. But the costumes for girls the costumes get smaller and for most they begin to get less attention to detail put into them.

And when are you too old for trick-or-treating? I believe that being a senior this may be my last year attempting to trick-or-treat. After that I’ll retire, and take my kids one day to enjoy what I enjoyed once as a kid.

Granted, there was an incidence my sophomore year. I was dressed up as Sandra Dee from Grease, my friend Brooke was Raggedy Anne, and my friend Anna was little “dead” riding hood. We had a great time dressing up and doing our make up and hair and getting ourselves into character. However, at one house we were denied candy.

Denied candy? Who has ever heard of such a thing on Halloween? But we were, and the lady just stared at us coldly waiting for us to leave. We were too old she had told us. So maybe some think that as teenagers it’s time to hang the cap up.

But I believe that we only have a few years left until we’re adults, so why not dress up? Why not channel your inner adolescence and have fun with people you care about? Throw a scary movie marathon, go to a haunted house with your friends, try apple bobbing, eat too many caramel apples, throw a bonfire, tell a scary story, carve a pumpkin with that special someone, or play a prank. Why not?