What do you want to be when you grow up?
Were you asked this question when you were a child? We all were at some point.
This question gets kids thinking they can be a teacher, a baker, a mom, or an edupreneur; just to name a few.
These options sound familiar to me. Right, I have gone through all of these roles in my life. At one point I was a teacher, but then became a baker as I found my passion in baking. After ten years of being an entrepreneur running my own bakery, I want to get back to education, but not as a teacher. I had to find a way to reinvent myself with the skill sets I had. Now I am currently a writer about the future of education.
Here’s the thing. We are a collection of the skills and knowledge we acquire through the experiences we live.
We craft our own unique journey.
The fact is, when we ask kids “what do you want to be when you grow up,” we hope to inspire them to dream of all they could be. But instead we limit them into dreaming of that one thing they can become.
Kids are born with a genuine curiosity, awe, wonder, spontaneity and flexibility. It is through these curiosities that kids discover their passions. The challenge is that when we ask the question “what do you want to be when you grow up,” we are implying that there is one calling out there for everyone. Some kids have a clear idea of what they want to be, and others have to define themselves early on like doctors and lawyers. But these cases might only be the exception and not the norm.
Seasons change and so do jobs. “In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks,” Mark Zuckerberg once told a group of young entrepreneurs at Y Combinator’s Startup School in Palo Alto. One day the news is given through a television channel, and the other you can be learning the news from a Tik Tok channel. But it’s comforting to know that the skills you acquire along the way can allow you to reinvent yourself and adapt to what the world needs.
The question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” forces kids to define themselves in terms of work that is accurate today, but will probably look different in the future. Some jobs that might be obsolete once they grow up.
The problem is that once kids define themselves early on and start exploring outside of that chosen definition, they may encounter feelings of confusion. Some kids may feel unsure about how to answer that question, others may just have many interests that make it so hard to decide. I’ve experienced this dilemma myself.
I think back to that question I was asked at age five “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
I still can’t really answer it. At 36 years old I'm just beginning to understand what I want to be.
Let’s talk about how we can flip the script.
What if we focus on the skills rather than the title? What if we think about this in terms of journeys that help kids build the skills needed to accomplish a dream, a goal, or become the person they want to be?
When we focus on the skills, we shift the question from “what do you want to be?” to “what skills and knowledge do I need to learn to do X?”
It turns the what into the how.
After all, you can become a baker, but how you bake will be what determines success and fulfillment. Or you can become a Veterinarian, but how you care for the patients is what determines your success.
Let’s stop asking kids “what do you want to be when you grow up?” and instead ask “What do you want to learn? Or what is one of your interests?”
