When do you ask your children " What do you want to be when you grow up?"

[mom2agang]

So you can form their curriculum around their goals. My soon to be 9th grader wants to a weapons engineer. And Im just starting to form his curriculum around that. But I was thinking why didn't I do this earlier?

[abbeyej]

I don't do it because I don't *want* my children narrowing in focus too soon. I want as many doors open to them as possible when they leave my care -- I want them to be able to write well and I want them to have strong math backgrounds and I want them to be able to think and talk about history and literature and science. I want them to be able to make choices as young adults because they have the tools they need for a variety of career options rather than pushing them into decisions when they're too young to have a perspective on the possibilities.

 

It frustrates me when someone says of a 9 or 12yo, "This child isn't going to go into a math-related field, so it doesn't matter if s/he gets a relatively weak math education" or "This child is going to be an engineer, so I'm not going to bother forcing him/her to learn to write well."

 

I know that's probably not what you meant. And I do believe in giving our kids a chance to develop talents and passions... This coming year, I'm limiting other English/writing a bit for my rising 8th grader so that he can have time to focus on doing The One Year Adventure Novel. He does think he might want to be a writer.

 

But I worry about focusing too soon and cutting off avenues of possibility even before kids have begun to know who they are and what might be out there in the wide world.

[hsingscrapper]

I asked my 12yo ds. At this point, he wants to be a beat cop or an MP.

[regentrude]

We have had ongoing conversations about this since the kids were very very little. I mean, how can you avoid kids forming an idea of what they want to be when they grow up?

DD wanted to be a biologist since she was 6 and has only in the lastyear shifted her interests towards biophysics. DS wanted to be a writer, is now interested in computer science and I am not holding my breath on this either.

 

We do not, however, select curriculum tailored to these wishes - they may still change their mind. I do not view high school as the time to specialize. We rather aim at giving them a broad education strong in math, science AND humanities and languages that prepares them to major in pretty much anything in college (OK, aside from arts and music where we have not sen any particular talent or desire).

[Crimson Wife]

My oldest wants to be a fashion designer, so we did look up the prerequisites for Cornell's Fiber Science & Apparel Design program. She was surprised to see all the science required. She's also been told by DH that if she wants to study fashion at college and have us help foot the bill, she's going to need to double-major in something like marketable like business. DH has a business school classmate who makes a good living as a manager for the luxury fashion company LVMH. DD would need strong math skills for studying business.

 

I got a sewing machine mostly for her sake and have enrolled her in art classes through the local arts education program.

 

DS wants to be a Naval officer on an aircraft carrier. So our goal for him is to have him qualify for an appointment to the Naval Academy. If he changes his mind later about the military, he'll be in good stead for applying to a top engineering program.

 

He will do Boy Scouts with the goal of earning his Eagle rank as a teen (we're learning towards making getting a driver's license conditional upon that).

[Milknhoney]

I work in the admissions office of a engineering-focused college. We advise students to prepare themselves by being ready to begin Calculus their freshman year of college, and also focus on lab science courses, particularly physics. Other than that, overall preparation for college in all subject areas is important. Even engineers have to have good written and verbal communication skills once they go off into the workforce, so non-math/science courses should not be ignored. Students can change their mind so easily that it is important not to drop anything that might be important. We get phone calls from students all the time asking if we require foreign language for admission, because they want to drop out of the class they are enrolled in. We always advise them to stay in that course anyway, because just because we don't require it doesn't mean they won't end up deciding to go to another school that does.

 

So to sum up, put him on a math track that would prepare him to be ready for Calculus, do four years of science including physics, and then continue on with college-preparatory coursework in all other subject areas. In this way, he'll be ready to study engineering in college, but if he changes his mind, he'll be ready for anything else as well.

[boscopup]

That is a good question. On one hand, it'd be nice to focus on the subjects that are important for the perceived job, but on the other hand, I agree with abbeyej that you don't want to close doors. I'll give you an example from myself...

 

In high school, I decided around 10th grade that I wanted to be a band director. I was heavy into band - marching, concert, jazz, pit orchestra for the musicals, dixieland, etc. If my school had a band, I was in it! :D At the same time, I kept up a general track of advanced courses - AP Calculus, AP English, AP US History, AP Government/Economics, etc. Now the ONE course I didn't do AP that I really should have? Physics. I did "Bubba Physics" (what we called it - it was taught by the track coach) because AP Physics was at the same time as jazz band, and I didn't want to quit jazz band.

 

Upon graduation, I chose a school and got a summer job. My job was working in the test department of a local telecommunications equipment company. While working there, I found the equipment I was testing to be really neat, and I wanted to know how they worked. It as at that point that I decided I didn't want to be a band director. I wanted to be an electrical engineer! So that's what I ended up doing in college, and I worked in the field for 5 years before having kids. If I were to go back to work, I'd want to go back to that field.

 

So minds can change, and I'm really glad that I'd taken higher level courses in ALL fields, leaving my doors wide open. Making that change from music education to electrical engineering was not a big deal at all, because I was well prepared for anything. In fact, I was the only freshman in my Calc 3 and Diff Eq. classes. :D

 

Also something that comes to mind is that in high school, my parents didn't choose my courses for me. I chose them. The school told me I needed 4 years of English, 4 years of math, 2 years of foreign language, etc. I chose from the list of offerings and made my own path. My parents didn't make any of my choices for me. They encouraged me to do the AP courses, but it was still my choice, and it was my choice when I went with jazz band over AP Physics.

[Plaid Dad]

I hope my dd will want to stay human. ;) What she wants to do with her time, professionally or otherwise, is a different story.

 

The days of getting a job out of college and working in that job for 50 years are long gone. As of 2008, only 10% of Americans had been with the same employer for 20 years or more. (source) The job my wife does didn't exist 20 years ago, and the technology she currently uses has only been around since 2005. None of this, I might add, has anything to do with what she studied in college.

 

Students need to start thinking about goals before they begin high school so their academic program will prepare them for the next step - college, job, vocational training, military service, etc. But those goals should not be so narrow that they exclude other possibilities, either in the near or more distant future. There's a reason that the core high school academic subjects don't change much; English composition and literature, math, science, history, and a foreign language form a solid base for most any step a young person can take after high school. Specific interests and goals should build on that core rather than replace it.

[G5052]

I hope my dd will want to stay human. ;) What she wants to do with her time, professionally or otherwise, is a different story.

 

The days of getting a job out of college and working in that job for 50 years are long gone. As of 2008, only 10% of Americans had been with the same employer for 20 years or more. (source) The job my wife does didn't exist 20 years ago, and the technology she currently uses has only been around since 2005. None of this, I might add, has anything to do with what she studied in college.

 

Students need to start thinking about goals before they begin high school so their academic program will prepare them for the next step - college, job, vocational training, military service, etc. But those goals should not be so narrow that they exclude other possibilities, either in the near or more distant future. There's a reason that the core high school academic subjects don't change much; English composition and literature, math, science, history, and a foreign language form a solid base for most any step a young person can take after high school. Specific interests and goals should build on that core rather than replace it.

 

We talk about different jobs, but my goal even during the transcript stage is to produce a well-rounded individual that easily learn new jobs and adapt. Very few of us end up doing in our 40's what we thought we'd be doing when we were teens.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

This is very interesting to me because what I got out of WTM is that the high school years are when your dc begin to specialize and figure out what they want (though keeping a solid base of English and math.) I am excited about the fact that homeschooling makes it possible for my dc to intern at companies at hours where other kids would be in school, making more opportunities available to them. I had hoped that this would lead to them having a better idea of what they want to do with their lives, unlike the average collage student who changes their major 3 times a year (or was it 6?)