T a b l e 6.2 Percentage of A C T Parents* with Degrees
F a t h e r s M o t h e r s C o m b i n e d
%
%
%
All ACT (n=3632) 28 13 20
StirUng CoUege (n=306) 22 10 16
Source: unpublished Scope data 1987.
* These are the parents of the 3,632 Year 11 students who completed the Scope survey and parents in the Stirling College Survey (see Appendix 111).
The results indicate that secondary college students come from families where educational qualifications and credentials are valued and where there is almost certainly an 'ideology of individual achievement and responsibility'. Although the percentage of parents at Stirling College with tertiary qualifications is lower than the ACT, it is high by Australian standards. Like college students elsewhere in the ACT, there is a parental expectation for Stirling College students to succeed at school and to get jobs with good career prospects. In the present sample of work experience students, parental occupations were mainly in the mid- professional category as shown below:
Table 6.3 Level of Parents' occupations at Stirling College
Mothers(n=21) Fathers (n=21)
Upper professional 0 4 Mid-professional "" 11 10 Blue collar 6 4 •Miscellaneous 4 3
^Includes 'housewives', retired and incapacitated workers.
Not surprisingly, therefore, parents appear to be more concerned with their children doing their homework than performing domestic chores. For most students domestic labour was taken for granted and unlike their part-time jobs did not appear to be of much interest to them or their parents. Domestic jobs were described as odd jobs like cleaning, washing up and doing the garden and were not noticeably sex-stereotyped. For example, Mandy's
interest in a career as a horticulturalist and her hobby as a gardener, means that mowing lawns and gardening is her job:
"My dad loves gardening and I suppose because he hasn't got any sons (laughing)...! don't mind doing it."
H o m e w o r k and Jobs
Parents also encourage their children to have part-time jobs so as to relieve them of paying a substantial allowance. Help with household chores is still expected especially when both parents work. As most of the fourteen part-time workers have working parents,
virtually all of them were expected to do some domestic chores ranging from tidying their rooms to looking after the entire family. Sue, whose parents are both shift workers, is responsible for most of the housework - doing the dishes, preparing most meals, washing, ironing and bringing in the foewood. As a result, she has had to give up her part-time job which kept her busy 20 hours a week at a fast-food oudet. Her parents give her pocket money as compensation. Another student, Gary, says that his parents like him working - 'I pay my own way' - as the father is incapacitated and the mother, as the breadwinner, eams little as a cook/cleaner in an old people's home. Ann is the only other student whose parents would like her to contribute to the family's finances. She is also unique in liking domestic work:
"I love doing kitchen work, I love cleaning up. I know it sounds strange, but I do enjoy it".
Ann believes her parents are putting pressure on her to get a paid, part-time job so she is not dependent on them. Although she never goes out and only rarely asks them for money, hers is a big family and the parents are always short of cash. Being short of cash is a constant worry to most teenagers as well. Their only source of income is from doing household chores for pocket money, or preferably earning regular money in a part-time job.
Fumham and Lewis argue that the habits of using money, more specifically pocket- money, are established in childhood. This early socialization includes deferring gratification and developing a sense of achievement associated with the Protestant work ethic which "leads directly to later success in the adult world" (Fumham and Lewis, 1986:45). All of the 21 students in the present sample were concerned about having enough money. As teenagers on the verge of young adulthood, asking their parents for pocket-money is perceived as less attractive than earning their own:
"Asking my parents for money is a bit of a hassle. I've got used to working" (Kala, shop assistant, in Munro, 1983:40).
For teenagers, shortage of cash is a major pressure in their lives, since to be adult means to have money to spend. In a study of leisure activities of sixth form students in Canberra fifteen years ago, the author concluded that "...1973 senior students emerge as young people who spend a lot of time around homes - their own and their friends"
(Frencham, 1976:5.34). While this is still true for many of the 21 students interviewed in 1988, the preferred meeting places for most are in the discos, taverns and clubs in the vicinity of the college. In 1973, Frencham found that more than 80 per cent of students received pocket money of $1 or more per week. Very few of these students worked in part-time jobs