Hayley Glatter spent six years as a summer camp counselor and writes about the lessons she learned in an article for The Atlantic. Here is a preview of her story.

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Neutrogena spray sunscreen smells the best. Coppertone face sticks are waxy and heavy. And if a parent insists on the old-fashioned lotion, hopefully it’s not store-brand, because that stuff takes forever to rub in. Sun protection is very nuanced.

I’m a bit of an expert on the subject, having spent spent six summers mastering sunscreen—that most necessary of hot-weather evils—as a camp counselor. While some of my teenage pals scooped ice cream, sat in lifeguard chairs, and lugged around other people’s golf clubs, I spent my days shepherding a group of 15 third-grade girls around 100 acres of land in northern Illinois.

But our experiences are becoming increasingly rare. As my colleague Derek Thompson reported earlier this month, fewer and fewer teens are working paid summer jobs—the days of simultaneously earning a tan and minimum wage are being traded for hours spent studying and working unpaid internships. The explanation for why, as Derek notes, is multifold, ranging from an increasing drive to prep for the academic year during the summer to a decline in the “cool” factor associated with working a short-term gig.

That today’s young people are looking for ways to maximize their time and are choosing more academic ways to do so—or, in the case of internships, more explicitly future-oriented ones—isn’t shocking. Since 2000, the number of students expected to attend higher education in the United States has grown by 5.2 million, according to the Education Department. But those applicants haven’t necessarily brought 5.2 million additional spots at selective universities with them. And so as admissions rates plummet and the application pressure-cooker heats up, taking SAT prep classes instead of babysitting can seem less like an option and more like an obligation.

Read the source article at The Atlantic