EP 57- What comes after 16?

okay great stuff so just to kick us off with then um you know time and time again even as an educator when i think back to you know my time um at school and i'm sure it might be similar for you like you'll get to a point whether it's the end of the academic year or someone will come in and do careers and they'll ask students you know what do you want to be when you grow up Do you think that type of sort of questioning is like too much pressure on kids? Do you think we should stop asking kids what they want to be when they grow up, when we don't have an idea of what the future and what the economy and the career field looks like for them?

Yeah, I think there is a lot of pressure for students to really kind of identify what they want to be when they're older.

I think one of the key questions that we should be asking them is who they want to be when they're older, what attributes they're looking to carry into their adulthood, as well as what problems do they want to solve in society? And I think that's when we can start to divvy out and decipher what their interests are, where their passions are, also where they're good at school.

So I think asking them what they want to be when they're older, students by that point, they've been exposed to eight to 10 job fields, essentially, and they're very limited in their knowledge.

So they're going to be very limited in their understanding of pathways and how they're going to go.

And then that is what they're building on, those limitations, as opposed to opening out those experiences for them to build on those instead.

Now that's interesting.

When you say who they want to be when they grow up, is that more around identity? Is that more around their values? And how do we teach them to understand that better, to understand their characteristics, their values, their identity? Because that's not something that we're necessarily taught in schools.

Yeah, it's not something that we're necessarily taught, but we definitely do practice it just every day from when we're young into adulthood.

One of the key things that I like to ask my students is when you think about yourself at the age of about 25, what does it look like getting ready for work in the morning for you? Do you have outside clothes on? Do you have a suit on? What do you pack in your bag? Do you pack your AirPods because you're getting on public transport? Do you pack a lunch? Do you pack protective wear? What is it that you are packing? And how are you showing up for your day? And those kinds of questions signify to me what kind of profession they think that they might go into.

Some think they're going to sit behind a desk, but that could be a multitude of professions.

But we know that they feel structure is going to be good for them, essentially.

Or are they going to be working outside? For example, will they be working in farms? Will they be working in fields? Will they be working in outside areas, etc.? So it's about really trying to divulge into conversations for them to understand what it looks like for them to be as an adult.

And that is asking them without saying, what job will you have when you're older? And also conversations around how they interact with people in teams, solos, individuals, etc.

identifies for them what it is that they enjoy doing and who they enjoy doing it with.

Again, without asking, what do you want to be when you're older?