The majority of American students dedicate their time not only to school, hobbies, family and friends, but also to work.
At the age of 16, American students can start walking toward the path of independence through a job. That makes students able to manage their own money, understand how the adult world works, and how to prioritize responsibilities.
Adolescents involved in this world work a maximum of 20 hours per school week to give them the time to study or do other activities, but sometimes it is not enough time to finish everything. Working can be a distraction from school because students spend much of their time earning money instead of studying, but it can’t be considered a waste of time due to experience and abilities that it provides teenagers. A lot of students are successful at school, even if they have a job: this means that they are able to balance work with study.
Senior Taylor Bloor was voted Student of the Month, this year in October because of her qualities, her success and her good grades.
Bloor works 10 to 20 hours per week and she dedicates 1-3 hours to study each day, depending on how much homework she has.

“Work is good for teenagers as long as they have enough time to keep good grades and social life as well because work teaches responsibility,” Bloor said.
She balances work and studying, so she doesn’t have to stay up all night after work.

“It’s all about not procrastinating and working hard in class to get as much done as you can as early as possible,” Bloor said.
This capability should be recognized as an ability that few have, but many can develop.

In other countries of the world, teenagers are not used to having a job as normally as in the US. An explanation of this is based on the differences between American high schools and high schools of other countries.
In United States high schools, students can choose some subjects that they are interested in, they can join sports, clubs or other activities. Basically this kind of high school gives the chance to the students to have an interest in what they study, with less stress and so to have more free time. This is because a student who spends their time doing homework, which is interesting for them, gain time that can be used to do activities, hobbies and working.
This is not so usual in the other countries. A clear example is senior Nora Schilling, an exchange student from Switzerland this year. She doesn’t have a job during the school year, like almost all the teenergers of her country. As she said, the school in Switzerland is harder and it’s almost impossible to focus on school and work at the same time and do well.
The main differences between Swiss high school and US schools are that you can’t choose any classes.
Every year they have to take all the same subjects, increasing the level and they are weekly scheduled; the amount of homework is almost the same, but they are not graded and this is the reason why a lot of students don’t do it. Another important difference is that Swiss high schools don’t have sports or clubs in which students can join, not giving the chance to challenge themselves to other things beyond the school.
Similar things happen in Pakistani high schools. Junior Irtiyah Sohail, an exchange student from Pakistan, can’t work during the school year. This is because of her school system, which is “built to sharpen students in academic learning, giving first priority to study than activities,” Sohail said. She would like to have a job, to become more independent and grow up.

Each type of school has its own advantages. American students develop different qualities compared to other students around the world. Taking advantage of working, they will grow up and will start knowing how the real world is, but without underestimating the values that education gives. Working and studying are both important, and finding a way to balance them is a key to success.