第1520期:Should schoolchildren have jobs？

When you were at school, the last thing you probably wanted to do was spend your weekends going to work. There was homework to do, sport to play and fun to be had. But our parents probably persuaded us to find a job to earn some money and get some life experience. When I was a teenager I had a paper round: delivering newspapers to people's homes. I then progressed to a Saturday job in a supermarket: stacking shelves and working at the checkout.当你在学校时，你可能想做的最后一件事就是周末去上班。有功课要做，有运动可以玩，有乐趣。但是我们的父母可能会说服我们找一份工作来赚钱并获得一些生活经验。当我还是个青少年的时候，我有一个报纸：把报纸送到人们家中。然后，我进入了超市的周六工作：堆放货架并在收银台工作。Today in the UK you are allowed to work from the age of 13, and many children do take up part-time jobs. It's one of those things that is seen almost as a rite of passage. It's a taste of independence and sometimes a useful thing to put on your CV. Teenagers agree that it teaches valuable lessons about working with adults and also about managing your money. So, that's no bad thing!今天在英国，你可以从 13 岁开始工作，许多孩子确实从事兼职工作。这是几乎被视为一种成人仪式的事情之一。这是一种独立的味道，有时放在你的简历上很有用。青少年一致认为，它教授了有关与成年人合作以及管理金钱的宝贵经验。所以，这不是坏事！Some research has shown that not taking on a Saturday or holiday job could be detrimental to a person later on. A 2015 study by the UK Commission on Employment and Skills found that not participating in part-time work at school age had been blamed by employers' organisations for young adults being ill-prepared for full-time employment. But despite this, recent statistics have shown that the number of schoolchildren in the UK with a part-time job has fallen by a fifth in the past five years.一些研究表明，不参加周六或假期的工作可能会在以后对一个人有害。英国就业和技能委员会 2015 年的一项研究发现，在学龄期不参加兼职工作被雇主组织指责为年轻人没有做好全职工作的准备。但尽管如此，最近的统计数据显示，在过去五年中，英国从事兼职工作的学生人数下降了五分之一。So, does this mean that British teenagers are now more afraid of hard graft? Probably not. Some experts feel that young people feel going out to work will hinder their performance at school, and they are under more pressure now to study hard and get good exam results - and a good job in the long term. However, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told BBC News that "Properly regulated part-time work is a good way of helping young people learn skills that they will need in their working lives." In reality, it's all about getting the right balance between doing part-time work and having enough time to study and rest.那么，这是否意味着英国青少年现在更害怕硬贪污呢？可能不是。一些专家认为，年轻人觉得外出打工会影响他们在学校的表现，他们现在承受着更大的压力，要努力学习，取得好成绩——从长远来看，要找到一份好工作。然而，学校和大学领导者协会秘书长杰夫巴顿告诉 BBC 新闻，“适当规范的兼职工作是帮助年轻人学习他们在工作生活中需要的技能的好方法。”实际上，这一切都是为了在做兼职工作和有足够的时间学习和休息之间取得适当的平衡。Many young people actually want to work because it gives them a sense of freedom. One 13 year-old girl called Rachel, who has a Saturday job in a shop, told the BBC that "I enjoy my job because I'm earning money and it helps my confidence speaking to people and socialising with people I work with." That seems like something worth getting up for on a Saturday morning. Did you do a part-time job when you were at school?许多年轻人实际上想要工作，因为它给了他们一种自由感。一名名叫雷切尔的 13 岁女孩周六在一家商店工作，她告诉 BBC 说：“我喜欢我的工作，因为我在赚钱，这有助于我自信地与人交谈并与我一起工作的人交往。”这似乎是值得在星期六早上起床的事情。你上学的时候做过兼职吗？词汇表life experience 生活经历paper round（通常由中小学生做的）上门送报服务Saturday job 周六工作，业余零工stack shelves 码放货架上的物品，整理货架checkout 付款台，结账处part-time 兼职的rite of passage 成人仪式independence 自主，自立，独立CV 简历detrimental 有危害的ill-prepared 准备不足的full-time employment 全职工作hard graft 艰苦奋斗hinder 阻碍，妨碍regulated（按照规定或法律）管理的sense of freedom 自由感confidence 自信socialise 交往，交际