Having a hard time getting your teen off the couch and doing meaningful work this summer?  Having a summer job, no matter how menial, can be a good experience for a teen.

My summer jobs ranged from answering the switchboard at a local bank to running a gift shop at a local hotel resort.  The worst one?  Probably a cashier at a grocery store, where I couldn’t figure out how to process WIC vouchers during my short tenure.  Despite the mishaps endured at my various short term jobs, I did learn a few lessons. 

1.    Money is hard to make, so don’t blow it all in one place. 
2.    Stay calm, don’t panic, and persevere, even with a long line of angry customers.
3.    Stay in school.

This last lesson was never really a choice.  Just ask my parents.  However, the summer jobs did reinforce why school was so important.  At the grocery store, I slogged alongside older co-workers working for minimum wage and remember how difficult it was for them to hold down a job, take care of kids, and pay bills on a paltry wage of $4.15/hour (or was it $3.85)?. 

A recent articlein USAToday on the past jobs of CEOs demonstrates, any experience, no matter how gritty or filth-ridden, is a valuable learning experience for a teenager.  The profiled CEOs shoveled dirt, hawked encyclopedias door to door, and held menial retail jobs, taking in lessons like overcoming adversity, developing ambition, staying in school, and having a positive attitude, no matter how nasty the customers can be.  So, why the continued slide in teen employment?  The article points out that the more well-educated the parents, the less likely their kids are going to hold down summer jobs.  Interestingly, Borders bookstore CEO George Jones’ teenage son, Dylan Jones, who barely has worked in any Borders store, but has traveled to 30 countries.  In this day and age of helicopter parents who expose their children to unique and diverse learning experiences, holding down the menial job at McDonalds is low (or nonexistent) on their list of priorities.  But ironically, that job may teach them a lifetime of good values.