A gift certificate to their college bookstore. It may sound boring, and they may not like it until they get to college, but with the price of books, the best thing any college student could use is money. This way they will also wait till they get to college to spend it (not waste it on stuff during the summer).
I work with a girl who never went to college, and has 20 years experience. She is smart, and does the job well, but I just finished college this year, and I am doing the same job. She is getting 10k less a year than I am and I am just out of college (Granted I have a masters in CS). The point is, that 4-5 years of your life can make up for 20 or more years in pay... Plus there is a lot more to college than the learning. It is the most rewarding and fun time of your life. Don't be in a rush to get in the real world. It has to many real problems...
I know that I have worked in a large agency (I would prefer not to name names) and we had a similar problem. We just cut them off, and waited to see who got mad. The thing is that most people have a tendency to not complain if they know that what they are doing is not completely in the best interest of where they work. The bottom line is that it is not there private connection, it is the school districts, and the school district should be aloud to limit if necessary. Now stopping these connections, that can be a bit more tricky, but there are software apps out there that will do it, or if you are really good do what we did, and write your own:).
Slashdot Mirror
A gift certificate to their college bookstore. It may sound boring, and they may not like it until they get to college, but with the price of books, the best thing any college student could use is money. This way they will also wait till they get to college to spend it (not waste it on stuff during the summer).
I work with a girl who never went to college, and has 20 years experience. She is smart, and does the job well, but I just finished college this year, and I am doing the same job. She is getting 10k less a year than I am and I am just out of college (Granted I have a masters in CS). The point is, that 4-5 years of your life can make up for 20 or more years in pay... Plus there is a lot more to college than the learning. It is the most rewarding and fun time of your life. Don't be in a rush to get in the real world. It has to many real problems...
I know that I have worked in a large agency (I would prefer not to name names) and we had a similar problem. We just cut them off, and waited to see who got mad. The thing is that most people have a tendency to not complain if they know that what they are doing is not completely in the best interest of where they work. The bottom line is that it is not there private connection, it is the school districts, and the school district should be aloud to limit if necessary. Now stopping these connections, that can be a bit more tricky, but there are software apps out there that will do it, or if you are really good do what we did, and write your own :).