<p>Oldfort - I completely understand where you are coming from; however the expectation that a high school student leave the house at 6:45 am for jazz band before school, attend school from 8-3, go work on the drama technical crew until 5:30, do homework for 5 AP classes, do volunteer work (including mentoring a young boy through Big Brothers Big Sisters), try to get some sort of physical exercise and also holding a “paid” job is unrealistic (and unhealthy in my opinion). </p>
<p>The one summer my son did have a paid job happened to be an extra long summer at his school due to a construction project (and he made the employer aware that he would only be available for the 4 months in the summer before they hired him). It is rather unfair to an employer to expect them to hire and train a high school student that will be available from the end of May until mid-August. Especially when they will be gone part of that time for camps, seminars, mission trips, etc. My son will be getting a summer job while in college, but at this point I don’t expect that he will get one during the school year (especially since he spends very little money and has saved a significant amount from allowances and gifts over the first 18 years of his life).</p>
<p>I do believe that there is much to be learned from hard work, but still contend that hard work comes in many different forms.</p>