Students who push burgers

推汉堡的学生

A college freshman squirms anxiously on a chair in my office, his eyes avoiding mine, those of his English professor, as he explains that he hasn’t finished his paper, which was due two days ago. “I just haven’t had the time,” he says.

一名大学生不安地蜷缩在我办公室的桌子上，逃避着我的目光，他的英语教授解释说他没有完成2天前要交的作业，“我只是没有时间。”他说。

“Are you carrying a heavy course load?”

“你学业负担很重吗？”

“Fifteen hours,” he says – a normal load.

“15个小时，”他说 – 正常的学业负担小时数。

“Are you working a lot?”

“你工作很多吗？”

“No, sir, not much. About 30 hours a week.”

“不是很多，先生。大概一周30个小时”

“That’s a lot. Do you have to work that much?”

“已经很多了。你有必要工作那么久吗？”

“Yeah, I have to pay for my car.”

“是的，我要还买车的钱。”

“Do you really need a car?”

“你真的需要一辆车？”

“Yeah, I need it to get to work.”

“是的，我去上班要用到它。”

This student isn’t unusual. Indeed, he probably typifies today’s college and high school students. Yet in all the lengthy analyses of what’s wrong with American education, I have not heard employment by student being blamed.

这种学生很常见。事实上，他可能代表了当代大学生和高中生。在漫长的分析美国教育出现了什么问题时，我没听过学生因工作而被责怪。

I have heard drugs blamed and television – that universal scapegoat. I have heard elaborate theories about the decline of the family, or religion, and of authority, as well as other sociological theories. But nobody blames student employment. The world seems to have accepted the part-time job as a normal feature of adolescence. A parochial school in my town even had a day to honor students who held regular jobs, and parents often endorse this employment by claiming that it teaches kids the value of the dollar.

我有听过归罪于毒品和电视的 – 常见的替罪羔羊。我也有听过关于家庭、宗教或者权力机构衰亡的大篇理论，还有其他的社会理论。但是没有一个人责怪学生去工作。这个世界似乎已经接受了兼职是青春期普遍的现象之一。在我镇上的教区附设学校甚至还设立了荣誉日给那些有固定工作的学生。父母表示工作能教会孩子们认识美元的价值，所以都很认同他们去工作。

But such employment is a major cause of educational decline. To argue my case, I will rely on memories of my own high school days and contrast them with what I see today. Though I do have some statistical evidence, my argument depends on what anyone over 40 can test through memory and direct observation.

但是工作是造成教育倒退的主要原因。为了辩驳，我会依靠我高中生活的记忆来对比我今天所见所闻。尽管我有一些统计数据，我的论据是来自通过记忆和直接观察并且超过40岁的人群。

When I was in high school in the 1950s, students seldom held jobs. Some of us baby-sat, shoveled snow, mowed lawns, and delivered papers, and some of us got jobs in department stores around Christmas. But most of us had no regular source of income other than the generosity of our parents.

20世纪50年代，当时我还在上高中，学生们几乎没有工作。有些人照顾孩子、铲雪、割草坪、送纸，有些在圣诞节前后在百货公司兼职。但是大多数人除了父母给的钱没有其他固定的收入来源。

The only kids who worked regularly were poor. They worked to help their families. If I remember correctly, only about five people in my class of 170 held jobs. That was in a working-class town in New England. As for the rest of us, our parents believed that going to school and helping around the house were our work.

有固定工作都是些穷孩子。他们工作是为了帮补家用。如果我没记错的话，班上170个学生只有5个人有工作。他们都是住在新英格兰一个工人阶级城镇里。对于其余的我们，我们的父母认为上学和做家务就是我们的工作。

In contrast, in 1986 my daughter was one of the few students among juniors and seniors who didn’t work. According to Bureau of Labor statistics, more than 40 percent of high school students were working in 1980, but sociologist Ellen Greenberger and Laurence Steinberg in “When Teenagers Work” came up with estimates of more than 70 percent working in 1986, though I suspect that the figure may be even higher now.

对比之下，1986年我女儿是少数在低年级和高年级之间不工作的学生。根据劳动统计局，在1980年超过40%的高中生有工作，但是在1986年，社会学家艾伦·格林伯格和劳伦斯·斯坦恩伯格在“年轻人什么时候工作”中提出预估有超过70%有工作，不过我怀疑这个数据可能还更高。

My daughter, however, did not work; her parents wouldn’t let her. Interestingly, some of the students in her class implied that she had an unfair advantage over them in the classroom. They were probably right, for while she was home studying they were pushing burgers, waiting on tables, or selling dresses 20 hours a week. Working students have little time for homework.

然而我的女儿没有去工作；她的父母也不允许。有趣的是，在她班上有些学生有意无意地表示她在班上有不公平的优势。他们可能说对了，当她在家里学习的时候他们一周花20个小时在推汉堡，侍候餐桌或者卖裙子。有工作的学生没什么时间做功课。

I attended a public high school, while she attended a Roman Catholic preparatory school whose students were mainly middle class. By the standards of my day, her classmates did not “have to ” work. Yet many of them were working 20 to 30 hours a week. Why?

当她在罗马天主教预备学校上学，身边的同学主要是中产阶级时，我在一所公立高中任教。以我那时代的标准，她的学生是不需要工作的。然而他们很多人每周工作20到30个小时。这是为什么？

They worked so that they could spend $60 to $100 a week on designer jeans, or rock concerts, stereo and video systems, and, of course, cars. They were living lives of luxury, buying items on which their parents refuse to throw hard-earned money away. Though the parent would not buy such tripe for their kids, the parents somehow convinced themselves that the kids were learning the value of money. Yet, according to Ms. Greenberger and Mr. Steinberg, only about a quarter of those students saved money for college or other long-term goals.

他们工作了每周就可以花60-100美元在设计师牛仔裤或者摇滚音乐会和家庭影院，当然还有车。他们活在奢侈品的世界里，买着那些他们父母拒绝浪费自己辛辛苦苦赚的血汗钱的东西。尽管父母不会买这些没用的东西给孩子，但是他们不知怎么地相信这能让孩子们知道金钱的价值。然而，根据格林伯格女士和斯坦恩伯格先生，只有四分之一的学生存钱是为了大学和其他长期的目标。

How students spend their money is their business, not mine. But as a teacher, I have witnessed the effects of employment. I know that students who work all evening aren’t ready for studying when they get home from work. Moreover, because they work so hard and have ready cash, they feel that they deserve to have fun – instead of spending all their free time studying.

学生怎么花他们的钱是他们的事，跟我一点关系都么有。但是身为一名教师，我见证了工作所带来的影响。当他们结束工作后回家，我知道学生整夜都在工作不可能有时间去准备学习。而且，因为他们很努力工作手头上也有钱，他们更觉得他们值得开心地去玩 – 而不是浪费他们的空闲时间在学习上。

Thus, by the time they get to college, most students look upon studies as a spare-time activity. A survey at Pennsylvania State University showed that most freshmen believed they could maintain a B average by studying about 20 hours a week. (I can remember when college guidebook advised two to three hours of studying for every hour in class – 30 to 45 hours a week.)

因此，届时他们上到大学，多数学生把学习看做是一项业余活动。宾西法利亚州立大学的一项调查表明多数新生认为他们每周学习20个小时就能维持在B水平。（我记得大学指导书建议每小时的课程要花两到三个小时时间学习 – 就是说每周是30到45个小时）

Clearly individual students will pay the prize for lack of adequate time studying, but the problem goes beyond the individual. It extends to schools and colleges that are finding it difficult to demand quantity or quality of work from students.

很明显这个别学生会为他们没有足够时间学习而付出代价，不过很多学生普遍存在这个问题了。它已经扩张到学校和大学，发现已经很难向学生们提供足量、有质量的工作了。

Perhaps the reason American education has declined so markedly is because America has raised a generation of part-time students. And perhaps our economy will continue to decline as full-time students from Japan and Europe continue to out-perform our part-time students.

美国教育显著倒退的原因可能是美国培养了一代兼职学生。我们的经济可能还会持续衰退，正如日本和欧洲的全日制学生完爆我们的兼职学生一样。