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    Cherith CutestoryHamilton Nolan
    8/21/13 11:12am

    As much as I hate to be one of the "when I was a kid" people because Jesus.... I will say that if you can't find a traditional job there are a lot of things to do. When I was thirteen I started volunteering with function halls and caterers to do random menial stuff. Dish washing, prep work, any chores, and I would often have to stuff chickens for those gross stuffed chickens you eat at bad function halls. (Somerville City Club holla!) I would get like $25 a day (remember to factor in inflation, kids). Then at sixteen I got a real job at a hotel. That is just an example but there are a lot of random stuff that people need help with. Housing market is "recovering" and contractors and landscappers and real estate agents can always use a hand with random fix up stuff or just cleaning. Jobs aren't just working at McDonalds or grocery store on a regular schedule.

    That being said my internet was limited by dial up at the time. If I had ready access to porn I may not have bothered. This is more advice if kids want a job. Not suggesting that they are lazier than I was (which would be impossible we were just broke).

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      spaced99Cherith Cutestory
      8/21/13 11:43am

      And what about temp jobs? As much as I HATED them, there seemed to be plenty of them, albeit shitty ones, when I was taking one of my many breaks from college.

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      Russianistspaced99
      8/21/13 12:21pm

      Temp agencies are a very different beast these days, and teenagers on summer break don't have much place in what's being called the "Permatemp economy."

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    RussianistHamilton Nolan
    8/21/13 11:30am

    If the states had gone to year-round schooling before the Great Recession when they could afford it, this wouldn't have been as big a problem.

    Long summer breaks from school, a relic of a more agricultural society, are on their way out in non-rural America anyhow. They'll be replaced with one- and two-week vacation breaks scattered across the year.

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      SwitzersLeftNostrilRussianist
      8/21/13 11:48am

      a bigger question is why we need all of those breaks. if you're willing to say that the old form (3 month break) no longer applies, why do we need to keep the same amount of vacation days as well?

      in no other part of having a career is this 3-month break required. i think it's funny that 17 year olds need a 3 month break for school, but when they turn 18, they magically can get a job and don't need any more long breaks. same for college kids.

      we should cut the breaks and get them through school in 20% less time. long breaks mean lots of reviews because of forgotten information.

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      RussianistSwitzersLeftNostril
      8/21/13 12:11pm

      The concept of diminishing returns figures into the reasoning, which does make sense to me. As with adults, it's important to take breathers and recharge. And as with adults, I'm not averse to more vacation/personal time as a general principal.

      The 3-month break no longer applies for a number of reasons, but one of them was that it wasn't really intended as a vacation period but to fulfill seasonal demand for labour on family farms. That's why it might continue in rural areas.

      Elsewhere, I imagine they'll replace 8-10 consecutive weeks of summer vacation with a couple of two-week vacations during the summer and 2 or 3 additional week-long breaks (or perhaps more 3- and 4-day weekends) the rest of the year, so there will still be 2-4 extra weeks of instruction per year

      You're absolutely right about the lack of information retention for students over months-long breaks — all the studies have shown that it's a serious problem and inefficiency in our education system.

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    The_MockingbirdHamilton Nolan
    8/21/13 11:01am

    Hats off to you for managing to work both "Taco Bell" and "Duty" into a sentence that isn't about poop.

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      ARP2Hamilton Nolan
      8/21/13 11:14am

      I don't understand, I thought adults are all really lazy and just collecting unemployment/welfare because they don't want to take the menial jobs? Now, you're saying that those adults already have all the menial jobs and now teens can't get jobs?

      I'm rich and its obviously not my fault- Just tell me to who to blame for being lazy! /s

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        Alex GonzalezHamilton Nolan
        8/21/13 11:01am

        Maybe because they are idiots and stuck in summer school

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          김치전!Alex Gonzalez
          8/21/13 11:12am

          Hahaha, what summer school? We put that shit online so we could outsource it to India.

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        raincoasterHamilton Nolan
        8/21/13 1:09pm

        Have you noticed the average age of baristas creeping upwards? In some small towns, a good half of the Starbucks employees are over 40.

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          La.M.Hamilton Nolan
          8/21/13 11:15am

          Year round school FTW. Summer breaks are antiquated.

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            Snacktastic Part II: the Snack AwakensHamilton Nolan
            8/21/13 11:20am

            Given the recession and the changes in the job market, it's actually very hard for teenagers to work in low income areas, even though there is a lot of evidence that it reduces the incidence of teenage crime. I think one of the best parts of the Obama's stimulus was a program to employ teenagers with a history of delinquency and problems in school—it was supereffective and actually did give many kids who would be hanging out and who were not being successful, a chance to feel accomplished, make money are relate to parents in a prosocial way.

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              SandovalpabsSnacktastic Part II: the Snack Awakens
              8/21/13 11:41am

              The irony is HamNo's desire to raise the minimum wage to absurd highs will only hurt teenagers more as no one will pay a 17 year old $15 an hour (for obvious reasons)

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              Snacktastic Part II: the Snack AwakensSandovalpabs
              8/21/13 11:44am

              That's a red herring to the minimum wage debate.

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            EnzanHamilton Nolan
            8/21/13 11:35am

            Companies also are trying to spend less, how do you cut costs? Cut how many people you pay.

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              nuclear boreEnzan
              8/21/13 1:19pm

              WOW tell me more

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              Enzannuclear bore
              8/21/13 2:45pm

              If you call right now we'll tell you how if you don't pay people they don't have any money to spend!

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            Dear ZeusHamilton Nolan
            8/21/13 11:51am

            This just reminds me of the shitty owner of the even shittier strip malls near my neighborhood. The city forced him to build on part of his land that he had left fenced and demolished for years so he built a brand new convenience store. It's in a neighborhood near a high school, plenty of people live within walking distance and it's right in front of a bus stop, and was completed at the start of summer... 5 years ago. Never opened. It sits there empty and dark with no signs saying it's for lease and no one moving in. The perfect opportunity for summer jobs sitting right there in a quiet neighborhood and it's wasted.

            Oh, and one of our nearby Taco Bells closed too. So them kids can't even work at the Taco Bell.

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