For high school leavers starting out in the working world, it is very important to learn particular skills and practice how to behave in an interview or how to find an internship (实习). In some countries, schools have programs to help students onto the path to work. In the United States, however, such programs are still few and far between.

    Research shows that if high schools provide career-relat­ed courses, students are likely to get higher earnings in later years. The students are more likely to stay in school, graduate and go on to higher education.

    In Germany, students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships. German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment.

    But in America, education reform programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world. Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track. Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the country's most vulnerable (易受影响的)kids with no jobs and no skills.

    Schwartz believed that the best career programs encour­age kids to go for higher education while also teaching them valuable practical skills at high school. James Madison High School in New York, for example, encourages students to choose classes on career-based courses. The school then helps them gain on-the-job experience in those fields while they're still at high school.

    However, even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work, the job market is daunting. In the US，unemployment rates for 16-to 19-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row.

"The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the summer job experience, they become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job," said Michael, a researcher in the US.

    Prosocial behaviors are those intended to help other people. Behaviors that can be described as prosocial include feeling empathy(同感) and concern for others and behaving in ways to help or benefit other people.

    Prosocial behavior has long posed a challenge to social scientists seeking to understand why people engage in helping behaviors that are beneficial to others, but costly to the individual performing the action. Why would people do something that benefits someone else but offers no immediate benefit to the doer?

    Psychologists suggest that there are a number of reasons why people engage in prosocial behavior. In many cases, such behaviors are fostered during childhood and adolescence as adults encourage children to share, act kindly, and help others. Prosocial behaviors are often seen as being compelled by a number of factors including egoistic reasons (doing things to improve one's self­image), reciprocal benefits (doing something nice for someone so that they may one day return the favor), and more altruistic reasons (performing actions purely out of empathy for another individual).

    Characteristics of the situation can also have a powerful impact on whether or not people engage in prosocial actions. The bystander effect is one of the most notable examples of how the situation can impact helping behaviors. The bystander effect refers to the tendency for people to become less likely to assist a person in distress when there are a number of other people also present. For example, if you drop your purse and several items fall out on the ground, the likelihood that someone will stop and help you decreases if there are many other people present. This same sort of thing can happen in cases where someone is in serious danger, such as when someone is involved in a car accident. In some cases, witnesses might assume that since there are so many other present, someone else will have surely already called for help.

    Why do people help in some situations but not in others? Experts have discovered a number of different situational variables that contribute to (and sometimes interfere with) prosocial behaviors. First, the more people that are present decreases the amount of personal responsibility people feel in a situation. People also tend to look to others for how to respond in such situations, particularly if the event contains some level of ambiguity. Fear of being judged by other members of the group also plays a role. People sometimes fear leaping to assistance, only to discover that their help was unwanted or unwarranted. In order to avoid being judged by other bystanders, people simply take no action.

    Experts have suggested that some key things must happen in order for a person to take action.

    On my first day of high school, going into math class, I was pointed and laughed at by two of my classmates. I initially thought my fly was open, or that something was stuck in my teeth. But as I took my seat, I heard one student whisper, "Why is a black boy taking Honors?" So, my fly wasn't open. An honors level class had simply been taken by a student whose skin was brown.

    Many people think my clothes should be big enough for me to live in, or expect me to listen to only "black music." In seventh grade, a group of my classmates fixed their cold stares on my clothes. They called out to me, "Go get your gangsta clothes." In one of my Spanish classes, the teacher asked me, "Do you like rap music or rock music more?" I replied, "Rock." The look of shock on my classmates' faces made me uncomfortable.

    Now I still take all Honors courses. I still wear clothes that fit me. My music library covers from rock to pop to techno, and almost everything in between. When it comes to choosing my friends, I am still colorblind. I continue to do my best to work in school in order to reach my goals; and yet, when I look in the mirror, I still see skin of that same brown.

    I believe in being myself. I believe that I myself should decide who I am and what actions I take in life. In high school, popularity often depends on your willingness to follow trends. And I've been told that it doesn't get much easier going into adulthood. But the only other option is to sacrifice my personality for the satisfaction and approval of others. This can be appealing, but I'm not going to do that.

Your 2019 Reading List, Provided by Bill Gates

Do you want to be a billionnaire? Most of us can't live like billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, but we can read like him. Gates recommended four books in 2019—though some were published earlier.

Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson (2018)

The bestselling biographer of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein researched deeply into da Vinci's contributions beyond art, highlighting the breadth of his scientific, technological, and creative output. "Leonardo nearly understood almost all of what was known on the planet at the time. That's mostly because of his curiosity about every area of natural science and the human experience," said Gates.
The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir, by Thi Bui (2018)

Gates calls this graphic novel "really impressive". Bui is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who came to America after the fall of Saigon, and becoming a parent inspired her to look into her own parents' miserable history. "I was struck by how the experiences Bui describes manage to be both universal and specific to their circumstances," said Gates.

Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders (2018)

Saunders, a long-time short story writer, won high praise for this novel. The book imagines the ghosts that haunt (萦绕) the basement of Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, who died at 11 in real life. "Willie's death after the Civil War made the president have a new understanding of the grief he's creating in other families by sending their sons off to die in battle," said Gates.

Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, by David Christian (2018)

This new book is by the creator of Big History, a free, online social studies course. It traces history in wide, sweeping movements, starting with the Big Bang, and it provides, in effect, a short course in modern science. This is a brief history of the universe. "David gets a little stuck on the current economic and political problems in the West, and I wish he talked more about the role technology will play in preventing the worst effects of climate change," said Gates.

Growing up on a tobacco farm, Emma Avery was used to hard times. When she was seven, her family's farmhouse burned to the ground. Her father made a temporary shelter, where eight people had to sleep in two beds. As soon as Emma and her four brothers and two sisters were big enough, they were out in the fields.

Emma would find her comfort in school, even as a C student, thanks to one teacher. When she moved on to middle school, Emma was alarmingly far behind her classmates. She kept her head down, trying not to be noticed, struggling to catch up, and feeling like an outsider.

Then one day, when Emma was 16, a teacher named Mr. Potts changed everything. Looking his students in the eye, Mr. Potts said, "Being a C student does not mean you do not have a valuable contribution to make. Some of you have to work in the fields in the evening and do not have time to study. But if you do your best, you have a gift to give."

The teacher's words made Emma believe she could do well, and she worked harder. In the end she won a scholarship to St. Paul's College, graduated with a degree in elementary education in 1967, and got a job in the public-school system. Then, at George Washington University, she received a master's in education in 1970, and afterwards in the same year she married Ron Smothers.

Over the next six years, Emma taught in public schools in Miami. In 1976, after saving $10,000, she opened her first restaurant in Los Angeles. Eventually Emma stopped teaching, and her business expanded to six restaurants.

In gratitude for what she has been able to achieve, Emma donates a lot. She has no idea how much money she's given away. She says, "Those I want to help are the C students who just need help, direction and confidence."

Don't ignore (忽略) the difference teenagers can make.

John Michael Thomas, 14, Florida

When John Michael Thomas decided to honor his friend and classmate Elizabeth Buckley, who died from cancer, he remembered how much she loved peacocks (孔雀).

He wanted to build a life-sized peacock fountain (喷泉) in Elizabeth's favorite park in the city. He thought it could be a place for people to relax and be inspired.

John Michael raised $52,000 to build the fountain.

Barrett England, 13, Utah

The wheels began to turn for Barrett England when he heard about Karma Bike shop, a place where young people can earn free bikes by reading and performing community (社区) service.

Barrett visited Karma's owner with his idea: He would collect and repair used bikes and donate them to the shop.

He expected to get about 10 donated bikes. In the end, Barrett received 39.

Zachary Blohm, 15, Wisconsin

The 25-year-old playground at an elementary school near Milwaukee, Wis. was so small that only 70 of its 575 students could play on it at a time.

That's when Zachary Blohm saved the day. He and some volunteers wanted to build a huge playground. To raise money, Zac planned T-shirt and bake sales, sold tickets and more. He held monthly money-raising events for more than a year. Overall, he collected $130,000 — enough to finish his project.

Jack Zimmerman, 16, New Jersey

For some people, finding a meal is as simple as opening the refrigerator. For more than 366,000 hungry kids in New Jersey, it's not that easy.

That fact didn't sit well with Jack Zimmerman, who organized a drive to lessen childhood hunger in his state. His goal: create 40,000 packaged meals that could be donated to those in need.

On game day, Jack and his volunteers started their work. After the final count, the team had packaged 47, 124 meals—well above Jack's goal.