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When Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest,” I am pretty sure he didn’t mean forking over thousands of dollars so your kid could participate in a fancy (unpaid) internship. But that is exactly what parents of privilege are doing this summer.
“What?” you ask. “Parents are paying to have their children work at a company?” Oh, yes they are and it’s not just because the Great Recession continues unabated.
As most of us are aware, college and high school students often participate in stints of unpaid work traditionally called internships. These short-term jobs are intended to give the student insight into a chosen career. They are modeled after the antiquated “apprenticeship” concept and can be pivotal learning experiences. The investment in knowledge has always been an investment by the company or organization into the future generation because let’s face it, you don’t get a lot of meaningful work from someone who is unskilled and only available for two months.
Now, parents are the ones making the investment and the price is high: $5,000, $6,000, even as much as $9,000. Here is a small sampling of what some of high school students are doing this summer:
- Attending Summer Discovery Internship where they gain college credit for working at an internship in a field that interests them. It only costs mom and dad $5,000 (or more)
- Doing community service in Costa Rica with the National Geographic Society (again for a mere $5,000 -- seems like that is the price to entry for these "meaningful experiences).
- Working in India with Raliegh International on sustainability issues -- at least they don't ask you to pay, they encourage you to "fundraise" for your adventure.
The question to ask is why are parents willing to pay for these “meaningful experiences” rather than have their children closer to home, doing an internship nearby, or something more mundane like life-guarding or simply getting bored?
When I reached out to a few of the parents whose children are participating in programs such as the ones above, they expounded on the benefits of cross-cultural access and the opportunity to have their children challenged in new and unconventional ways. One parent did say she’d be thrilled if her son could find a summer job, but there aren’t any and she is probably right. According to a report released by job services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, hiring of 16-19 year olds was down 17% in 2010 and was expected to be down again this year. Eventually, however, the parents I spoke to admitted they thought these meaningful experiences would “look good on the college application.”
And there it is. Those who can are creating the perfect college resume for their privileged children. Let me be clear, in the vast majority of cases, these are not spoiled children indulged by superficial parents. (Yes, sure, some of them are: a recent article on the cover of the New York Times observed that the Haves are sending their kids to summer camp (that’s nothing new) in their private jets (really?!).)
Rather, these are parents who are caught in the race to get Janey and Johnny into the best college possible. They are responding to the advice of college counselors like Kristin Thomas, who offers summer activity advice for college-bound students on the blog, The Succulent Wife. Of one exclusive (and expensive) opportunity she writes, “Of course travel can also be a beneficial use of summer time. National Geographic has great programs for either fieldwork or expeditions trips. How impressive would this be to put that on a resume!”
We, the parents of college-bound students, are bombarded with how-to advice on getting into Harvard, Stanford and the like. Programs such as paid internships are classic examples of the “keeping up with the Joneses” on the race to nowhere. The thinking goes, “If I don’t send Janey to (fill in the blank with meaningful experience X), she won’t get into the college of her choice because her competition, let’s call him Johnny, will and he’ll have something that sets him apart.”
One parent I spoke to argued these meaningful experiences were educational. That is true; they are. The children are learning important skills, but they are doing so in a highly constructed manner. I worry in our rush to ensure that Janey and Johnny have experiences that will set them apart, we parents are keeping our children from learning the essential skills of autonomy and initiative, skills learned by
