1 asks: I’m a teacher in primary school. I want to know how I can give guidance to children about jobs.
Hey 1, good for you! So many teachers avoid talking with young children about jobs, and only teach them official subjects. But kids want to know about jobs, and it really helps for them to see how their book-learning applies to the work they’ll be doing in the big world some day.
At the same time, because you’re teaching Primary school, you’re going to face a lot of kids who (correctly) have dreams that extend beyond their abilities. So many boys plan to be professional athletes. So many kids plan to become president, prime minister, or at least a pop star. And of course, the last thing you want to do is to discourage them from dreaming that big! But you do want to show them what’s great about other jobs too, the sort that they’re more likely to get.
Now I don’t know how much control you have over scheduling, but my thought is that it’d be awesome if you could either have one day that’s all about jobs, or an hour a week about them. And what would be great is to get a bunch of people to come to your school and teach about what they do. All sorts of people – a businessperson, a police officer, a dancer… and not just adults! Can you get some teenagers to come in and talk about the jobs they do too? And if someone has promised to show up and cancels at the last minute, then YOU can get up and tell them about what they don’t know about teaching.
And then, yes, encourage them to dream. Let their craziest fantasies flow. Let a deaf girl say she’s going to be a great opera singer. Let a short boy say he’s going to be a basketball star. And be sure and encourage lots of those kids to become veterinarians! Because we need all of those we can get!!
Good Luck,
Shirelle