Laurence Steinberg Part Time Employment Essay

Part Time Employment and Students Education

There are a lot of theories when it comes to students and jobs. Many state that students do poorly and are distracted while others say it does nothing to students. There is a certain theory by Professor Laurence Steinberg in which he states its affecting students negatively. In “Part-Time Employment Undermines Students’ Commitment to School”, Professor Laurence Steinberg explains the conflict between school and work. Steinberg states that students who work during the school year tend to get lower grades in school than those who do not work. In my opinion, I feel as though his research may have had its mistakes because he only did the research on high school students’ instead of college students; doing the research on college students would of helped Steinberg get more a accurate result.

When Steinberg was doing his research on high school students he had to use a variety of measurements in order to come to the conclusion that work effects school. “We compared the grades of students who work… with those who work in limited amounts or not at all.” (1). He also looked at how much time

students, who were working twenty hours or more per week, were spending on their school work. He noticed that these students were not only doing poorly on their school work and cutting class, but also cheating. Due to his results he believes that working takes time away from doing homework, studying, and even class time.
I believe Steinberg had a good idea when doing his research. However, I do believe he made a mistake. Steinberg only did his research on high school students; Therefore, I don’t feel it applies to college students. My reasoning for this is that high school students are just starting out their lives. They don’t know how to handle things such as stress or how to manage their time as well as older people do. High school students are more focused on wanting to have fun and going out with their friends; they don’t want to go home and do homework after working long hours. Another reason why I believe Steinberg’s research doesn’t apply to college students’ is because college students have a flexible schedule and high school students don’t. All high school students have to attend school five days a week for about eight hours a day and having a job on top of that schedule would leave them no time to complete their school work.
On the other hand, college students do have a flexible schedule which allows them to be able to have a job that won’t affect their school performance. Also, college students are experienced which means they will know how to handle having a job and school therefore creating a balance between the two. College students are also more mature which means that they won’t just be focusing on going out with friends; they will most likely get their school work done first. Steinberg also stated “Working long hours is associated with increased alcohol and drug use.” (2), I strongly believe that does not apply to college students. College students would most likely spend their money wisely for things they need like school supplies such as books, classes, notebooks, pencils and such. Therefore, I believe his theory would be more accurate if he included college students.
I do, however, believe that there might be some similar negative effects on college students such as not getting enough rest or feeling stressed.

Not getting enough rest and feeling stress leads many students feeling very tired. Steinberg states “Teachers frequently complain about working students falling asleep in class.”(2), which would be caused by the lack of sleep. These issues can be solved by working fewer hours and fixing your school schedule to allow you to rest more.

In conclusion, I don’t believe that Steinberg’s theory applies to college students. In order for his theory to be more accurate, Steinberg needs to study college students as well as high school students. Studying college students would give him a different and more accurate result which would show that work doesn’t always affect school

performance.