Essay/Term paper: Blue collar student: are jobs good or bad?

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Literary Essays

Blue Collar Student: Are Jobs Good or Bad?

Brian Woy
Are part time jobs good or bad for a student? This is an interesting
question that pertains to almost half of all high school students. Jobs provide
students with many different qualities but at what cost? This will be the topic
of discussion in this paper.

Part time jobs are as common to students as mooing is to cows. Many students
find it necessary to have a job after school and during the summer. One benefit
of having a job is it builds character in oneself. Having a responsibility at
work and working with others builds ones leadership and teamwork abilities.
Students also have the ability to earn some extra money to help pay for a car
and the insurance required to drive it. It also allows students to get a sense
of independence as they are not always relying on mom and dad to give them money.
For example, your friend Jim has a job making sundaes at dairy queen. Jim works
about 24 hours a week and makes $4.50 an hour. At the end of that week , Jim
has $80 that he can call his own. Jim could go to the movies, buy a new pair of
shoes, or do whatever he wants to do with it. Jim worked hard for his money and
after all, it is his money. Another alternative to spending this hard earned
money is to save it in a bank and use it for college.

This is all fine and dandy but what about school and the homework teachers send
home. If a student does have a part time job when will he get this work done.
Part time jobs can take away the precious time that students need to study and
do homework. Let's just say for instance that our friend Jim has a final exam
tomorrow. Wait a minute though, it's Thursday and Jim works from 4 to 10. Jim
has no time to study before he goes to work so he figures he'll do it after work.
Jim gets swamped at Dairy Queen and by the end of his shift, he's so tired he
can barely drive home. When Jim does get home, he cracks the books and starts
studying about Beowulf. After about ten minutes of that, Jim is fast asleep and
before you know it, Jim's mom is telling him to wake up. Jim takes is exam,
knowing nothing about Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxons or anything else that was on his
English exam and to no suprise, he gets an "F."

Because of his job Jim had no time to study and will now hope to become manager
of the Dairy Queen where he works. Jobs can interfere with ones' school work
and cause all kinds of trouble.

Jobs are important character builders and can be real helpful to a student. On
the other side, a job can be a students worst nightmare, and cause them to
become a full time employee instead of a part time employee. It takes a lot of
self-confidence, motivation, and time management to do both, but in the end, a
student will have an idea of the world that is there for him to explore.