<p>Ummmm students don’t get paid for allll this work they do, adults get paid.</p>
<p>And parents work 9 to 5 not 7 to 5. In my area, in the city, school starts at 7:45 and some kids wake up at 5 am to get to school at 7.</p>
<p>School ends at 2:15 and then kids do extracurriculras until 5 or 6. Then they have to travel back home, shower, eat dinner, and do work until 12 or after, WHILE their parents are watching television or sleeping.</p>
<p>Kids would LOVE to sleep as much as their parents.</p>
<p>My kids are not yet even at high school but I have already noticed how long hours US kids work. Of course also US adults work much longer hours than most Europeans but with the kids the difference is huge. My children have now at least three times the homework load they used to have in Finland where we come from. And that is so even though their curriculum here is not at all that heavy with time consuming language studies (in Finland every kid studies at least 2 foreign languages, first one starting from third grade, most go up to three or four different language before high school. Studying three or four foreign language at the same time is really a big time consumer.) Unfortunately I’m not sure my kids are learning that much more now even though they certainly work harder than they did while still in Finnish schools. Much of their homework seems to be busywork, that kind of enrichment projects that they earlier used to do at school on the last week of the school year after all the material had been learned, all the exams been held, grades given, sun shining and they still had to keep kids in for few more days, or just repeating the already learned material for the repetition sake. </p>
<p>Well, they certainly learn to work hard. I’m just afraid that they may not learn to be efficient. Of course it is also the question of style. Already when I was studying at University, our professors sometimes apologized us when they had an American book as the text book. Not because the books were bad, but because they took 800 pages to teach the same material European books had in 400 pages. Well, on the time being you learned to skip all the elaborating, repetition, repetitive examples, parts that again taught the basics you already learned at the middle school (in graduate level books) etc. And I don’t mean those books were bad. It is just a style issue. In my experience it is common, that the American text books are written so, that almost every reasonably smart and sophisticated person could read and understand them. The European text books are more often written with the prerequisite that you already know material from the more basic level books. Both styles have their pros and cons. But I have to say, that European text books were usually much easier to carry around.</p>
<p>You can certainly tell which posters are the teens and which are the parents in this thread :).</p>
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Someone remind me what I get paid for cleaning, cooking, child care, grocery shopping, bill paying, mom taxi driving, dog chasing, homework helping, essay reading…</p>
<p>Some high school kids do work more than many adults – especially if you consider ECs “work,” which I do because they are a major time commitment.</p>
<p>On the other hand, adults who are raising children, especially young children, work more than many adults or students do – if you consider family and home responsibilities “work,” which I do because they are a major time commitment.</p>
<p>In other words, the brutal pace of top students’ high school lives is good preparation for the brutal pace they will face when combining employment and parenthood.</p>
<p>IN my family, there are five people. Three have very strong work ethics, and two don’t. One of the three is my senior d. SHe does work very hard but her dad gets up early to do PT, works for way more than 8 hours and then works from home. He often has to travel on holidays and weekends. She doesn’t take off for any holidays except a very few (Christmas, Easter, and some for half days). Myself, I am also usually busy and I don’t get any holidays off= my days off are very rare complete sick days like last week when I had surgery and some vacation days (only if we are not in a place where I have to cook and where I have to deal with all logistics). Now my youngest who is also a high school student is one of the two who isn’t working very hard at all. It has better change.</p>
<p>My life has slowed down in past 2 years, only working about 45-50 hours a week. I have time for a book club, CC, evening meetings, phone calls to friends, TV, and the gym. Other than the year after my son was born, when I worked part-time, life was busy. I’d often be up late writing papers/books or doing reports.</p>
<p>By far, the hardest time was the sandwich years–with a busy HS student, 2 parents to care for, and full time work.</p>
<p>Wrong. I get to work at 6:45; I’m often still catching up on my charting at 7:30 pm. Get home by 8 or so. Then I have to go to work (see below).</p>
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<p>Ditto. Except for the essay reading. My kids never have liked me to read their essays because I’m too much of a perfectionist and this drives them insane. :o</p>
<p>I don’t work that schedule every day, but I’ve put in more than my fair share of hours, having worked at jobs (while going to school) since I was 15 years old. I deserve my days off.</p>
<p>Sure, a high schooler’s life is busy but it’s also all about him (or her). Notice the “list” of things to keep that hs student working so many hours. Is there routine care for someone else (cooking, cleaning, child care)? Is there service that doesn’t go on the old college app? </p>
<p>To the OP, I would say, sincerely, enjoy this time of busy-ness that is all about you. It’s going to be years before you get it again.</p>
<p>Working adult here…my “work” didn’t end when my JOB day ended. As the parents, I provided taxi service and meal delivery to my kids throughout high school. I did the laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, snow shoveling, car washing, yard work, bill paying, record keeping, and those things were OUTSIDE of my paying day job time. It’s not like I was sitting here drinking tea while my kids were slaving over homework and ECs…and school.</p>
<p>Oh…and in my line of work, I also had work I did at home. </p>
<p>Sorry, I think you are comparing apples and oranges. Yes, the students work hard…but so do most adults with day jobs (and home responsibilities too).</p>
<p>I wish I have time to do other extra stuff like playing soccer or playing musical instruments but instead I work all day and when I come home I have to help my kids with their Chemistry and Math homework on top of making them dinner. :)</p>
<p>But seriously, I do understand that some kids work very hard and have very busy schedule. It does not have to be that way all the time to get wherever you need to be. Pace yourself and take a break once in awhile.</p>
<p>My kids seem to work much harder on academics than I did in HS. They have 7 classes (we had 6), lots of APs/honors classes, tons of homework. Makes me tired just thinking about it. We all had paying jobs in the old days, but still had time to keep up with homework. Now, fewer kids are working at paying jobs during high school because they don’t want their grades to suffer.</p>
<p>@rituna. yea prety sure students in the US work more than kids in europe. funny thing is the work we do here in the US is like almost nothing to the amount of work kids do in asia (talkin about some parts of china, hong kong, south korea, japan)</p>
<p>As students… we can choose whether or not to play “the game.” As students we don’t have to work hard… but then we may not get (into) the college/ programs/ grad school/ jobs we want. We, like “adults,” have the choice to take the hard route or the easy way. Eventually some chose more intense jobs for a higher pay check, while others are willing to accept a smaller one for a more 9 to 5 job.</p>
<p>What industry/company works 9-5?..I want to work there. The is some truth buried in Rituna’s post. My boys complained endlessly about “busy work” and senseless assignments in high school and the two that are in college are much, much happier. Also all three would say that the first couple weeks of every class was a review of the work from the previous class. Something I’ve not thought about…but yes…why do we do this? If you took all those weeks of repeat material the kids could take a class or two for the fun of learning or study hall so they have less night time homework. I don’t agree with the OP and no one says kids have to do this and that and the other things jam packing their schedule (and their parent’s schedule) but the classroom busy work can stop as far as I’m concerned.</p>
<p>But again…9-5? I haven’t worked for a 9-5 company/job since the late 70s. I told my 88 year old father a few days ago that as I “aged” the work hours got longer, the drive got longer and the offices got smaller and the after taxes/contributions/copays % of my paycheck got smaller.</p>
<p>My older daughter was and still is (in college) incredibly busy, but that’s how she likes it. She is very organized and accomplishes so much.</p>
<p>My younger daughter (high school junior) is much more low key. She cracks under pressure, is taking only 1 AP class, no lab science, no language, many English and Social Studies electives which involve projects and papers. She’s loving it and has blossomed tremendously. She has many ECs including volunteering at a local arts class for younger kids, stage crew, and Girl Scouts. She’s even made time to write a full novel that she is peddling around right now. </p>
<p>There are 15 colleges on her list, 3 reaches, 2 safeties, the rest matches. Many don’t even take SAT/ACT scores, which lowers the pressure even more. Most are well known, some are top 50, all are in the top 100 LAC. She’ll find the schools that are most like her, nurturing and loose with an emphasis on actual knowledge gained as opposed to grades earned.</p>
<p>Life, including high school, is a rat race only if you allow it to be. My older daughter thrives on it, my younger has taken a stand. Both will be very successful in their lives.</p>
<p>From what I see, there is much variety in how we all spend our days. My D loves sleep…and she sleeps 8-9 hours a night as a HS junior! To do this --other things are discarded (no fb, TV, or gaming, only 1 or 2 ECs, no hanging with friends, except 1 or 2 weekend nights)…her lifestyle choice and she’s happy.</p>
<p>ECs are entirely voluntary, so they cannot be considered work. If you quit one, no one else will be affected in a serious way. Self- cultivation (which is what ECs essentially are) is a very good thing, but it’s a luxury. I get impatient when I hear high schoolers whine about how overworked they are. Get off Facebook, drop a sport (or whatever), and be happier. Better yet, do your own laundry and prepare your own food. Then you can complain about how overworked you are.</p>
<p>I sometimes wonder whether we are unwittingly producing a whole generation of highly trained incompetents. They are very good at artificial accomplishments designed to get them into a top-ranked school, but they are ignorant of basic life skills and conditions.</p>
<p>I muse about this sometimes…more on the line are the “best and the brightest” really the best and the brightest. They sure are awful good at qualitative but where’s the qualitative? They are proficient at arts but are they creative? They can learn but can they question? They follow the rules but will they change rules? and so on and so on…</p>
<p>some high school students who take multiple APs per year and commit to time-consuming extracirriculars and sports have less time to relax than adults anyone agree/disagree?</p>