Effects of Student Self-Help

T HERE have been, traditionally, two contrasting approaches to the question of what effect self-help employment has upon college students. On the one hand, many observers have sentimentalized the role of student employment in developing character, transforming weaklings into he men, adding the most important elements to education of college youth, and in short creating selfmade men and women. In many circles, great prestige is attached to having worked one's way through college, as part of the American tradition of admiration for rugged self-reliance; persons in high places point with pride to such evidence of lowly origin. This point of view sees only virtues in student employment, and attributes only favorable effects to such activity. On the other hand, some alarmists have placed sweeping condemnation on all employment by students while attending school, alleging that it interferes with the main business for which students come to college, that it has definitely adverse effects upon scholastic achievement, health, and all aspects of student life. Only in recent years has attention been directed to attempts at careful study of the effects, and the findings may be disappointing to those holding either of these contrasting views. Preliminary to the question of effects is the question of the extent of employment among college students. A recent survey of the various available studies on extent of student employment, made by one of the present writers, may be summarized by stating that from one-third to one-half of the students, on the average, engage in part-time employment while attending college, with great variations according to sex (more workers among men than women), type of college, location, and other factors. As would be expected, some schools are far above this rough average-a few co-operative-type schools having ioo per cent of their students gainfully employed-and some schools are far below this average. Studies in various years show a surprising constancy, with less change in the proportion employed from year to year than is frequently supposed (i9). The same survey of various studies revealed the not unexpected finding that working students are drawn more heavily from homes with lower incomes and less wealth. Between I to 20 per cent of the students were

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• Student Personnel Work at Northwestern University

  Donald G Paterson•The Journal of Higher Education•1930

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• Survey of Land-Grant Colleges

  Arthur J Klein•The Journal of Higher Education•1931

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