Career Day What Are We Teaching Our Children

Career Day What Are We Teaching Our Children The Primary school sent home a notice about Career Day, an initiative focusing on Academic Fitness and Career Development.   Yippee, its never too early to start thinking about this stuff right? First, let me say, that teachers have an incredibly difficult job.   They arent just educating children, they are caught in the middle of   wacky over-protective parents and the schools administration.   It is a really, really tough place to be.   I respect what they are doing and want to support their efforts to educate my child while in school and help instill a love of learning.   The rest is up to the parents! The flyer requested that students dress up as a career that interests them.   The flyer provided suggestions for costumes (things you would have around the house).   The examples were:   waitress, mailman, or teacher.   The more important part of the assignment, stressed the flyer, was that the student should also be able to talk about why they are interested in the career they chose, its job responsibilities and the skills or personal qualities associated with the job. Now, here is my rant! What message does this career day assignment send to students? Is it that they can only pick ONE career? Are we forcing them to think in a linear career progression?   The reality is that these little tots will have 10-15 different jobs in their lifetime, perhaps more. We need to do a better job instilling in them at a very young age the understanding of a career lattice.   Sloane Work and Family Research Network at Boston College defined career lattice as a “replacement for the traditional “corporate ladder” enables employees to move in several directions rather than just upward. Additionally, it is quite possible that these children will be working multiple jobs at the same time, not just a single job. The need for contract work far exceeds the stable and traditional employee.   Shouldnt we prepare them for this now? The career day costume choices were a bit discouraging as well.   Are we underestimating the intelligence and creativity of our children by suggesting such common careers?   Can we push our children to think about what jobs might be available in the future?   Technically, we dont know what those career choices are because they dont exist. But isnt it worth a try to get them thinking outside of the box? Part of me cant help but think that this well-intentioned assignment is being given by lifetime educators.   Most teachers I know went straight from their graduate program into teaching.   That is to say, they only know what they know. Perhaps this is a dangerous assumption to make. The Career Day event hasnt occurred yet.   I would love to see what happens in the classroom.   I may just do that and report back. FYI:   When I asked my child what he wanted to do, he said he wanted to be an author, a librarian and an architect!   Now thats a cool answer!   How do you dress up for that combo? What do message do you want to make sure the children of today are learning?   How can you make that happen?