I worry less about screens than about the challenges todays teens never face

A summer job was once a rite of passage for teens hired to staff local restaurants, stores, and pools.But today the percentage of 16-19-year-olds now working summer jobs is at or near the lowest levels since the U.S.

Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking this data just after World War II.Today, about one in three 16-19-year-olds have a summer job.As there are about 17 million high-school-aged students in the U.S., this means that more than 11 million currently don’t have a summer job.About half of these teens participate in some type of summer camp, according to Gallup, but many of these camps are day camps that only last one week (baseball camps, soccer camps, band camps, and so on).

Also, the "gap in participation rates between upper- and lower-income families is nearly 30 percentage points, 67% versus 38%," determined Gallup.BALTIMORE BEAT-DOWN: VIDEO SHOWS GROUP OF TEENS PUMMELING ELDERLY MAN OUTSIDE 7-ELEVEN AS POLICE HUNT SUSPECTSWhat this means is millions of teens are at home — or hanging out somewhere — likely playing video games and scrolling through social media all day and night.The percentage goes up in the poorer neighborhoods — places where they are much more likely to be in fatherless homes.A teenage boy typing text messages on his smartphone while lying on a couch at home.

(iStock)Free play is a critical part of social and personal development, but a summer of nothing but screen time can lead teens into who knows what online and in their neighborhoods.Also, when parents later complain that their kids were indoctrinated by teachers and professors with political ideologies or values the parents do not share, I ask what challenges they gave their kids, as positively learning or overcoming real things builds a foundation of conservative values that later help them critically evaluate impractical ideologies (such as socialism).RALEIGH MAYOR CONSIDERS YOUTH CURFEW FOLLOWING TEEN TAKEOVER, VIOLENT JULY 4TH WEEKENDSummer jobs, of course, can ...