Posted 2009-November-21, 09:54
Kindergarten is not too young for learning that adults have careers but I agree that a sales pitch for ANY particular career would not be good.
I often feel that by the time I was seventeen or so I had an infinitely better idea of the adult work world than many young people do today. If you ask many college students why they are there you get something of a blank stare. Their parents sent them, someone told them to pick a major, there's plenty of beer. It was so much different for me. I know parents want to protect and guide their children but for me, I liked it my way. I chose college. My father had not been to high school and had no idea why anyone would go to college or what they did there. I chose mathematics. I considered the Navy after high school because I wasn't sure how I would pay for college but my hs math teacher (something of an oddball, as I was) arranged for a scholarship. At one point, working over the summer at a job I enjoyed, I considered dropping out (my father would have seen this as coming to my senses) but decided to stick with the math. Lots of choices, all my own.
I do believe in protecting kids, and I don't think they should be getting a sales pitch for any career. But some of these kids get to be twenty and have never said, "Dad, here is what I want to do with my life". When I was fourteen I thought maybe I would be a race car driver. A good age for that fantasy, when I was seventeen I was more practical.
Anyway, I would not favor having the Army in to do a presentation. Or the Ford Motor Company. Or the movie industry.
The world has changed. Kindergarten now goes for a full school day and the kids have homework. We used to go 9-12, we learned to take naps, color inside the lines, and to sit in a row without punching each other.
Ken