Newt was right: Our teens do want to be janitors

By Cynthia Lasher

True or false: Our high schools prepare students to be successful in the workplace. I say false. This past week, I taught a college level workforce readiness course to youth aged 14 to 21. They were all looking for one thing: their first job. I believe that an education needs to be paired with work experience.

 
Last November 18, 2011 former House Speaker Newt Gingrich started a ridiculous media discussion about providing jobs for youth. He said that schools should fire the janitors and hire students to clean the schools. This would give children a work ethic. He said that many of today’s successful business owners and politicians had part time jobs between age 9 and 14.  (See the whole story in the Politico http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68729.html)

One of Newt’s challengers, Tommy Christopher on Mediate.com had equally idiotic comments. “Surely we can all agree that kids aren’t failing in school because they lack the opportunity to clean toilets.” Apparently, he thinks that if we follow Newt’s advice, all of the good union jobs cleaning schools would only be offered to children aged 9 to 14. http://tinyurl.com/79jk9vy

Did anyone ask the teenagers what they want?

A typical entry level job requires good communication skills, customer service skills and computer skills. Oh, I forgot. A typical entry level job also requires a year of paid work experience.

My students practiced customer service skills. They were well spoken and respectful. Many were bilingual. Some had diplomas and some had GEDs. Most were ethnic minorities who were exceptionally talented. I had a high school student who worked as a lab assistant on an ASU Bioengineering research project. Another student won a national contest for a motivational speech he wrote. Another earned her Certified Nursing Assistant while attending high school.

The only thing that they lacked was paid work experience.

On the program’s second day, they received their work assignments. Many of these jobs were janitors or activity leaders at recreational facilities. I asked them how they felt about their assignments. They felt proud.

You see, the debate should not be about what age a child works his first paid job. It should not be about the type of work. We need to ask, “How can we create more opportunities for our youth to work in paid jobs that build self-esteem?”

To learn more about the Arizona Call-A-Teen Youth Resources, Inc. http://acyraz.org/