...what about the American teenager?
Teens are typically the ones who take over the menial jobs. They pour your coffee, load your groceries, guide you in the concert parking lots, scoop your ice cream and lead you to an empty dressing room. Many students rely on these jobs to help prepare for college, pay for gas in their car or simply become independent in their spending. The crappy jobs that are being replaced with "automatic"-thing or "digitalized"-that are important to a major part of the population who has to start somewhere. Somewhere, on the bottom of your resume or the back of your memory is the shitty job that gave you the opportunity to say, yes I grilled hamburgers, but I do have work experience.
The American teenager is busy with high school, how can they become specialized to compete? I was lucky enough to become trained as a life guard and that gave me skills no computer could replicate. But what about my friends whose parents could not afford the life guard, first aid and CPR/AED training? (Trust me, it ain't cheap). I know we can't anticipate the future jobs, new needs are always created but typically those new jobs require degrees and sophisticated understanding.
Perhaps high school will have to teach more than Shakespeare, how to balance a chemical equation and how to play Pomp and Circumstance; if students are going to stay vital in the workforce, they will have to prove useful. If all the cashier jobs are someday lost, it will be interesting to see what that first "crappy" job will become.
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