Nowadays, it is not outlandish to see many teenagers are working part-time as promoters or sales girls during the school holidays. Parents are willing to allow their children to work part-time so that their children will spend their school holidays well without wasting any time on surfing the internet and playing computer games. However, some parents do not allow their children to work part-time because they have the fallacy of thinking that their children are not mature enough to work. In my opinion, I partially agree that teenagers should be allowed to work during the school holidays due to the reasons that teenagers can earn their own pocket money, learn ample knowledge from working and the teenagers’ academics performance will be affected.
School holidays are defined as a period for the students to rest and keep away from their school routines. Whereas, working is known as physical or mental activities carried out to fulfill the tasks and is rewarded in monetary terms. One of the points I will highlight is pocket money can be earned by teenagers through working during the school holidays. For example, those who work as promoters in the shopping malls can earn RM5 an hour as their extra income. Thus, their parents’ burden can be reduced as teenagers do not need to ask for pocket money from their parents for daily expenses. Teenagers can even save the money they earn from working to buy reference books and stationery that they need. Therefore, parents do not need to worry on the school fees as their children are able to fork out on their own. Teenagers can also afford to buy things that they long for such as phones, laptops and shoes. In short, teenagers should be allowed to work during the school holidays because of the extra income they can get.
Furthermore, teenagers can obtain ample knowledge by working during the school holidays. It is due to the fact that they will have the opportunity to be exposed to working life at early age. Thus, they will be more experienced and know the ways of dealing with people from different social and financial backgrounds. They also know how to cooperate with other people to complete the tasks given. Hence, their social skills, a yardstick for them to reach for the stars in their future jobs, can be enhanced. They will be able to express their ideas clearly to their colleagues and supervisors. Teenagers can also know ways of utilizing time well as they need to complete the jobs that are assigned by their supervisors in a given time. Thus, they will learn to be punctual. They will become more independent as they have to look for the effective avenues to solve any problems that are faced by them in work. In brief, students’ knowledge can be widened through working and, therefore, teenagers should work during their school holidays.
However, teenagers should not spend most of their school holidays in working part-time because their academics performance may be affected. Teenagers should spend their school holidays by attending more tuition classes or seminars and doing more revisions. As a result, they can prepare and perform better in their academics. Conversely, if teenagers use most of their time working, they will have no time to do revisions and exercises from reference books because teenagers who are tired after working are unable to concentrate on their studies. Hence, teenagers who do not do their revisions during their school holidays will find difficulties to catch up with their studies when the following semester resumes. Their academic results will deteriorate due to lack of revisions. In summary, teenagers should not work during their school holidays as this will disturb their academic performance.
In conclusion, teenagers should be given leniency to work during the school holidays so that they can earn extra income and their knowledge can be widened. On the contrary, it is undeniable that working part-time during the school holidays may affect their academic performance. Thus, teenagers should put in unremitting efforts to balance the need and the wants so that they can perform well in academics.