延長暑假時間，讓大學生工作更長時間來支付賬單

延長暑假時間，讓大學生工作更長時間來支付賬單

As the dog days of summer ­meander to their end, where have all the college kids gone? They’re mostly back at school, weeks before Labor Day, during a time most of them can be banking money for the school year.

夏天馬上就要結(jié)束了，所有的大學生都去哪兒了?他們大多在勞動節(jié)前幾周回到學校，在這段時間內(nèi)，大多數(shù)人都可以為本學年存錢。

The mid-August campus arrival date is theoretically there to get the student situated for the start of school. Register for classes, buy books, party with dorm-mates. But in 2019, you can register for classes online and order your books to your doorstep. Why are colleges cutting into valuable work time for their students by calling them back to campus ­before Labor Day?

從理論上講，8月中旬的到校日期，是為了讓學生在學校前做好準備。注冊上課，買書，和室友聚會。但是在2019年，你可以在網(wǎng)上注冊課程，然后在家門口訂購你的書。為什么要在勞動節(jié)之前把學生叫回校園，浪費他們寶貴的工作時間呢?

Summers are traditionally a money-earning opportunity for college kids. Sure, some loaf around, but the smart ones work to avoid crippling student debt or to have pocket money throughout the year. We have an ever-ballooning student-loan problem in this country: Why not give students a longer summer off to earn their dough for the school year?

大家都知道，夏天是大學生賺錢的好機會。當然，也有些人會游手好閑，但聰明的人會努力避免沉重的學生債務(wù)，或者攢夠一整年的零用錢。我們國家的學生貸款問題越來越嚴重:為什么不給學生放一個更長的暑假來掙本學年的錢呢?

Schools that do start post-Labor Day give their students an advantage to keep working until the end of the season.

那些確實在勞動節(jié)后開學的學校給了他們的學生一個優(yōu)勢，讓他們可以一直工作到夏季結(jié)束。

Rory, a 20-year-old cabana boy at a beach club on Long Island, whose college starts back up in September, told me that it’s a benefit to him that he can continue working for an extra few weeks before school starts. Some of his co-workers travel long distances to school and then back again to finish out the summer season — and collect the end-of-season tips they count on.

羅里，一個20歲的卡巴納男孩，在長島的一個海灘俱樂部打工，他的大學在9月份開學，他告訴我，這點很好，在學校開學前幾周他都可以繼續(xù)工作。而他的一些同事需要長度跋涉到學校，然后再回來完成夏季的工作——來收他們所依賴的季末小費。

It’s not just the service industry that’s affected by the early college start date. Bills have been introduced in Ohio, Georgia and other states to delay the start of the school year until after Labor Day so farms have enough workers.

不僅僅是服務(wù)業(yè)受到了大學開學日期的影響。俄亥俄州、佐治亞州和其他州已經(jīng)出臺法案，將學年的開始推遲到勞動節(jié)之后，這樣農(nóng)場就有了足夠的工人。

Farmer Karen Burwinkel of Burwinkel Farms wrote in support of one such bill in The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2017: “The early start to the school year has a bigger impact than many realize. Our farm, for example, has been forced in recent years to shut down our harvest season early because of the anticipated loss of labor.”

伯文克爾農(nóng)場的農(nóng)場主卡倫·伯文克爾(Karen Burwinkel)在2017年的《辛辛那提詢問報》(Cincinnati Enquirer)上撰文支持這樣一項法案:“開學早一點的影響比許多人意識到的更大。例如，我們的農(nóng)場近年來被迫提前結(jié)束了收獲季節(jié)，因為預計會出現(xiàn)勞動力流失。”

The real issue is that colleges don’t see themselves as being fundamentally related to employment — but students who shell out tens of thousands of dollars to attend higher education surely do.

問題的根本在于，大學并不認為自己與就業(yè)有著根本的聯(lián)系——但是那些花了數(shù)萬美元去上高等教育的學生，肯定會這么認為。

Many colleges don’t seem to real­ize, or care, that kids who ­attend might need a job to be able to afford tuition. The life of the mind matters. So does the wallet. For most students, moreover, college is a steppingstone to better job prospects, not just learning how to pronounce Nietzsche and Solzhenitsyn correctly.

許多大學似乎并沒有真正意識到，或者關(guān)心那些上學的孩子可能需要一份工作來支付學費。精神生活很重要。錢包也是。此外，對大多數(shù)學生來說，大學是通往更好就業(yè)前景的踏腳石，而不僅僅是學習如何正確發(fā)音尼采(Nietzsche)和索爾仁尼琴(Solzhenitsyn)。

A more realistic college model must take periods of work into account. It doesn’t have to just be summer jobs, either. My alma mater, Northeastern University, is a five-year school that incorporates students taking whole semesters, and sometimes more, off from school to go work in jobs in their chosen fields.

一個更現(xiàn)實的大學模式，必須考慮到工作時間。也不一定只是暑期工。我的母校，東北大學，是一所五年制的學校，學生們可以休學一個學期，有時甚至更長時間，到自己選擇的領(lǐng)域去工作。

When students graduate, they have a real résumé of employment. And there’s the added benefit of finding out before you graduate that the field you thought you wanted for your career isn’t for you.

當學生畢業(yè)時，他們有了真正的就業(yè)機會。還有一個額外的好處就是，在你畢業(yè)前，發(fā)現(xiàn)你認為你想要的職業(yè)領(lǐng)域可能不適合你。

Colleges have to admit there is a problem, one that can’t be solved with the typical school guidelines allowing students to work 10 to 15 hours per week. But so far, they seem to mostly bury their heads in the sand.

大學必須承認存在一個問題，這個問題不能用典型的學校指導方針來解決，那就是允許學生每周工作10到15個小時。但到目前為止，他們似乎都逃避了這個問題。

In April, New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection announced a public-awareness campaign about student-loan debt. Ads warned young people that “financial aid is not free money” and “student loans are real debt.”

4月，紐約市消費者和工人保護部宣布了一項關(guān)于學生貸款債務(wù)的公眾宣傳活動。廣告警告年輕人“財政援助不是免費的錢”、“學生貸款是真正的債務(wù)”。

It’s a national crisis. People are plunging themselves into sometimes insurmountable debt to get a degree. It shouldn’t be the role of city governments to ­explain that loans taken out for schooling are “real debt” — it should be the role of the schools themselves. And that explanation has to come with solutions for ­allowing students to work while they go to school.

這是一場全國性的危機。為了獲得學位，人們有時會陷入無法克服的債務(wù)之中。市政府不應(yīng)扮演這樣的角色——解釋用于上學的貸款是“真正的債務(wù)”——而應(yīng)扮演學校自身的角色。這種解釋必須要有解決方案——允許學生在上學的時候工作。

Pushing back college start dates until after Labor Day would be a good start — and a winner for all.

把開學的日期推遲到勞動節(jié)之后，將是一個好的開始，對所有人來說都是一個雙贏的開始。