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Dreaming is fantastic-- but can we push our kids to dream about something realistic and help them realize the probability of making it big as a youtuber is so small. How about dreaming about being an engineer and creating something useful? I think we have enough of the "dreamers" thinking they can be a NFL QB or winner of American Idol.
How does a kid know what an engineer does? Kids know what they see. How can they dream about something they can't see?
How does a kid know what an engineer does? Kids know what they see. How can they dream about something they can't see?
That's why society and parents have to show the next generation more professions than mass media does.
If you watch television, you'd think you could be a cop, doctor, lawyer, or criminal. Barring that, be some quirky super-genius or a struggling artist who manages to afford an expensive apartment and drink coffee with friends all day.
If we weren't such a litigious work environment I'd encourage more professions to "take the next generation to work" more often so young people can see what people do for a living up close and be more informed before they commit to a trade school or college and find out they don't like the field.
How does a kid know what an engineer does? Kids know what they see. How can they dream about something they can't see?
Well, in the "old days" (I put "old days" because this isn't even that long ago), we actually used to have educational TV shows and programs that taught children about various fields and occupations. For example, on Mr. Rogers, there were segments where you actually got to meet workers and see them demonstrate their work. Sesame Street famously had a song called, "These Are the People in Your Neighborhood." There were also books and educational films shown in class that would've taught them about various fields.
So when you ask "how does a kid know what an engineer does", you're talking about a failure of modern day culture to teach children about the world, not a fact of life. The engineers of today became that because 30, 40, 50 years ago, they were exposed to engineering in various ways. They didn't spend all of their formative years getting their information about the world through junk media and they were taught about some of these things in school.
That's why society and parents have to show the next generation more professions than mass media does.
If you watch television, you'd think you could be a cop, doctor, lawyer, or criminal. Barring that, be some quirky super-genius or a struggling artist who manages to afford an expensive apartment and drink coffee with friends all day.
If we weren't such a litigious work environment I'd encourage more professions to "take the next generation to work" more often so young people can see what people do for a living up close and be more informed before they commit to a trade school or college and find out they don't like the field.
Most work isn't something worth dreaming about, though.
This big disconnect began with my generation, it began with us Boomers. We were the first generation in the history of the world which it was not generally expected for teens or even pre-teens to be adding to the family finances. A Boomer teenager was not expected to be working to help support the family, unlike the situation with our Depression-kid parents. If we did have jobs, that pay was understood to be our own money, not money going into the family kitty.
When I was a kid, though, the primary discussion point an adult had with a child was, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" That was pretty much all any adult wanted to know from us.
Heck, I could be out on the street standing at a bus stop, and the old guy standing there might ask right out of the blue, "Young man, what are you going to be when you grow up?"
But I realize that simple question, asked of me repeatedly by adults everywhere, had three major implications: 1. That I should expect to grow up, 2. That I had a choice in what kind of adult, 3. That I needed to be thinking about it right now.
But I spent a lot of time, summers, with my grandparents. They were able to show me "adulting" in a way my parents did not have time to do. Typically, my grandfather would pass through the living room on Saturday morning and say, "Get up, boy, come with me."
I'd whine, "Aw, granddaddy, I wanna watch cartoons!"
"Come on, boy, go with me." Maybe my grandmother would add, "If you stay here, I've got things for you to do."
And he'd take me out for a few hours to watch him deal as an adult with other adults through his day. I understand now what he was doing.
I'm old now. I wanted to be a cowboy (I'm female) when I was a young kid living in the Bronx, NY and then when I was an older kid I wanted to be an astronaut until I remembered I got sick on rides that went faster than a merry-go-round and science wasn't my best subject. Both seem just as silly as wanting to be a YouTuber these days.
How does a kid know what an engineer does? Kids know what they see. How can they dream about something they can't see?
You are right that kids do not know what an engineer is, but they know what buildings are, bridges are, airplanes are, etc. When I was a kid, I wanted to study dinosaur bones. A teacher told me that would be a paleontologist and I just looked at her like she grew another head. I had no clue what she was talking about, I just knew I wanted to look at dinosaur bones. I had no real clue what a 'scientist' was. I had friends who wanted to "build things". We would build crazy things with our Legos and we had to come up with all kinds of ways to prevent our buildings from collapsing. Who knew that we were little engineers in training.
You are right that kids do not know what an engineer is, but they know what buildings are, bridges are, airplanes are, etc. When I was a kid, I wanted to study dinosaur bones. A teacher told me that would be a paleontologist and I just looked at her like she grew another head. I had no clue what she was talking about, I just knew I wanted to look at dinosaur bones. I had no real clue what a 'scientist' was. I had friends who wanted to "build things". We would build crazy things with our Legos and we had to come up with all kinds of ways to prevent our buildings from collapsing. Who knew that we were little engineers in training.
And when I was kid I used my Erector set pieces to build powered combat exoskeletons for my 12-inch GI Joes.
But unless someone shows a kid what an "engineer" is, there is no connection in the kid's mind between looking at a building and imagining there is someone sitting at a computer designing it. There it is. A building. A part of the landscape, like that tree over there. And there is a road, too, another part of the landscape. The kid may see construction workers--that doesn't look fun. But the kid doesn't know instinctively that there is anything more than he sees.
So if all he sees is athletes, singers, and YouTubers, then that's what he's dreaming of. When he realizes he can't hit a ball and can't sing, those choices get narrowed down.
How does a kid know what an engineer does? Kids know what they see. How can they dream about something they can't see?
Do schools no longer have student's parents come to school and tell the kids about their occupations? Back in the dinosaur days, my high school did. Freshmen year, I believe.
I remember vividly the moment I knew what I wanted to do as an occupation. It was during a middle school class, when we studied the bubonic plague in medieval Europe. I had to write a research paper approaching it from a social as well as medical perspective. Hooked me on microbes and their role in infectious diseases.
Do schools no longer have student's parents come to school and tell the kids about their occupations? Back in the dinosaur days, my high school did. Freshmen year, I believe.
That's what I was going to ask. I guess they don't do this anymore and haven't for a long time, based on the confused responses on the part of some posters wondering where children get to learn about professions.
as long as they can support themselves $$$ its all good
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