The idea of career advice for primary school students, floated recently, has been greeted with much disdain and ridicule. To some extent, I tend to agree.
We seem hellbent on taking the fun out of childhood and coercing kids to make decisions and prepare for a life that may not exist by the time they get there.
Our children appear to be subjected to test after test in some quest to plot their future before they have a chance to see what the world is about and make their own decisions. There is lots of talk about how it was back in the day, but little latitude to allow kids the same breathing space to grow.
Admittedly, times have changed and the world is not as safe as it was. My bike riding skills and my bike would not last five minutes in today’s suburban traffic. Local parks aren’t what they used to be as meeting points for the neighbourhood Test match.
Kids adapt to their surroundings very well, as long as adults are kept out of the picture. We are the ones who changed the landscape and our kids are adapting to it. Whether it is for safety or convenience, we drive our children everywhere and we are involved in all their activities. How many times do we tell them to grow up and stop acting like two-year-olds? We probably should say that more often to adults.
What is the right age to decide your career path? There isn’t one. What about all the people who do a job for 20 years and then change and find their real calling in life?
I know 50-year-olds who have been in the workforce for decades and still have no idea what they really want to do. They have had jobs to make money, but never had a job that made them happy.
Who said you have to have one job or one career path for the rest of your life? The way some industries are changing and shedding jobs, that is not always a viable option.
Rather than giving career advice to 10-year-olds, I think we should be getting career advice from them. There seems to be many more dissatisfied adults than there are 10-year-olds.
