TITLE: No Summer Job? Learn How to Program
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: June 23, 2017  2:04 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
The article
<A HREF="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-05/why-aren-t-american-teenagers-working-anymore">
   Why Aren't American Teenagers Working Anymore?</A>
comments on a general trend I have observed locally over the
last few years: most high school students don't have summer
jobs any more.  At first, you might think that rising college
tuition would provide an incentive to work, but the effect is
almost the opposite:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 "Teen earnings are low and pay little toward the costs of
 college," the BLS noted this year.  The federal minimum wage
 is $7.25 an hour.  Elite private universities charge tuition
 of more than $50,000.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Even in-state tuition at a public universities has grown large
enough to put it out of the reach of the typical summer jobs.
Eventually, there is almost no point in working a low-paying
job; you'll have to borrow significant amount anyway.

These days, students have another alternative that might pay
off better in the long run anyway.  With a little gumption and
free resources available on the web, many students can learn
to program, build websites, and make mobile apps.  Time spent
not working a job but developing skills that are in high
demand and which pay well might be time spent well.

Even as a computer scientist, though, I'm traditional enough to
be a little uneasy with this idea.  Don't young people benefit
from summer jobs in ways other than a paycheck?  The authors of
this article offer the conventional thinking:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 A summer job can help teenagers grow up as it expands their
 experience beyond school and home.  Working teens learn how
 to manage money, deal with bosses, and get along with
 co-workers of all ages.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

You know what, though...  A student working on an open-source
project can learn also how to deal with people in positions
of relative authority and learn how to get along with
collaborators of all ages.  They might even get to interact
with people from other cultures and make a lasting contribution
to something important.

Maybe instead of worrying about teenagers getting summer jobs
we should introduce them to programming and open-source
software.
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