Have you ever missed school or an important event due to not having enough sleep or an extremely packed schedule from trying to juggle so many things at once? Most teens will immediately sigh and say yes to this question without hesitation.
Most high school students participate in school activities, clubs, or extracurricular activities. These things can all be very time-consuming, such as, many sports teams having practices almost every day or having games throughout the week that take time away from students. And with students taking the time to participate in these activities, there are also even more students with other events in their lives, like having a job or working for/with their families that can make planning anything a major struggle.
Many teens wish to have their own money they can spend, or they have a car they need to pay off, or they want to save for something like a car. Whatever it may be, they go and get a job somewhere like fast food or a grocery store where they can start finally making their own hard-earned money, but sometimes this can conflict with school and other activities like sports if it is something you’re truly passionate about. Many people may not take these things into consideration, but when trying to make time for work, they may not think about the time they need for school or for activities like sports.
I know I personally and many others have fallen victim to this situation. Trying to make the time for schoolwork and even just regular work can be difficult, when you take into consideration students get out of school at 3:10pm, and it’s safe to assume students will head home directly after this to either shower or get ready for work. If students want to make genuine money, they must work at least a few hours a day for multiple days in the week.
With places like fast food, some of the shortest shifts one can get will be 4-6 hours for teenagers under 18. Taking this into account, said students will be getting out of school at 3 PM and immediately going to work from 4-10. For the average student this isn’t extremely late, but it leaves very little time to get work done and still get enough sleep to not be exhausted the next day. And what has not been considered is students trying to juggle a job and sports! Some students are unable to leave sports due to their parents wants or because it is something they are passionate about, then this can absolutely crush their chance of getting a job or holding a job due to them working such inconsistent hours or from them working so few hours.
With countless students going through this daily, I wanted to interview a few students to get multiple sides showing this perspective.
An old friend of mine, Riley Brumfield, used to come to school for 7 periods, go to the gym after school for two hours, and then go to work until 12 at night. Riley stated, “It was the most exhausting thing I tried to do, but I had to keep working to help my mom with rent and the gym was the only thing that kept me feeling sane.” The stress from this led to Riley having to drop out and switch to an online school.
Another student at Doherty, Rex Hutchinson, goes to school and has four free periods on Tuesday and Thursday so he can work with his father at their moving company. He shared, “I put so much time into finishing my credits up so I could take these days off that I had to drop football, but since I’ve done so, I was able to continue to work and find time for Muay Thai instead.”
Though some students can make it work the trouble that sometimes has to be taken can be undesirable or again not achievable for some.
And in my personal experience, I have missed school quite a bit due to me not getting enough sleep and the school has tried and is currently trying to take me to court over it. But I wish it was more apparent in some cases that students don’t have a choice. Many others including me must work for our own benefit or to assist our families, like in mine and Riley’s case of having to pay rent and car payments to get by.
It is not fair in some cases that school can be already detrimental to one’s health and then can punish a student for trying to do something they want to do with their lives. Many students have noticed and brought to light that the school is very “willy nilly” with who they choose to berate for absences; some students will have 150+ absences across all classes and have never spoken to attendance or the principal. Or there will be cases like mine and many others who have maybe half of that and still will get ISS and attendance warnings daily. It’s a bit silly that the school will give us students ISS for missing class and make us miss more class in ISS.
Jobs, school, sports, and extracurricular activities are beneficial things for students, but it is unfortunate and difficult to manage everything perfectly sometimes and in relation to the school’s decisions it is the perfect example of “life isn’t fair.”