<p>Mini, I agree that your stories here are too wonderful to have spread out over so many different places . . .a compilation would be a great gift.</p>
<p>Actually, some of them are already in a new book! LOL! <a href="http://www.skylarksings.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=52%5B/url%5D">http://www.skylarksings.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=52</a>
Actually, in three books - <a href="http://www.skylarksings.com%5B/url%5D">www.skylarksings.com</a></p>
<p>(anyone who mentions cc gets two bucks off)</p>
<p>The article above, however, is not in any of the collections. It is scheduled for publication in May in a homeschooling journal called "The Link". A former associate dean at Brown University, who homeschooled 5 kids on the beach on the big island in Hawaii, without tv, computer, or even a telephone (they are all now in their 30s), are collaborating on a book called "What Really Matters", and these columns are a build-up of material for putting it together.</p>
<p>And how much do I get off for raising this issue at what appears to be a most propitious moment?</p>
<p>As I say to my d.'s, a "piece of undying gratitude" (but you are unable to cash it in until you have the whole thing! ;))</p>
<p>A story I didn't tell above is how the Finnegan's Wake thing did, finally, lead to something "propitious". When I was 23, and at UChicago, I wrote a reading script version of Finnegan's Wake, and hosted a reading at my student apartment. Playing leading roles were Saul Bellow (who that year won the Nobel Prize), Marshall Sahlins (of Stone Age Economics fame), the New Yorker art critic Harold Rosenberg, the anthropologist Victor Turner and his wife Edie, the Greek scholar David Grene (he was the star! and the only Irishman), and a host of others, and DARN - no one even bothered to take a photograph!</p>
<p>
[quote]
How did your child come to know what they wanted to be?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>HBO, that's how. He wasn't allowed any TV during the school week. He used to wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning and watch the films on HBO. He was fascinated. That's how he knew from middle school on that he wanted to make movies.</p>
<p>Speaking of photographs, mini, I love the pic on your website. You look just like I imagined. Looking forward very much to <em>What Really Matters</em>!</p>
<p>For teens, making a choice as to the career path to be pursued is somewhat like falling in love--there's no set time or formula for how to make the choice, or when it will happen; it just does, and then it might change several times. Some kids know early--my oldest daughter (now a high school junior) has known she wanted to be in sports journalism since the 8th grade, and her experiences as a writer and editor on the school paper and as an intern at a college Sports Information Department have confirmed her choice to her. There's a palpable sense of excitement when she's involved in writing in general (and sportswriting in particular) which goes above and beyond how she feels about any other similar activity. For others, it's not as clear. My guess is that my son will change his mind several times before he settles on what he wants to do, and that is likely true for my younger daughter as well.</p>
<p>No one loses out on an opportunity because they haven't decided what to do by the time they reach sophmore year in high school. One of my law school roomates was going to be a math professor until the summer before his senior year. A law school classmate finished law school, decided she wanted to be a psychiatrist, and went to med school. Both have successful careers in their later choices.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I am surprised by the number of kids cited here who apparently did know what they wanted to be at an early age. Both my husband and I stumbled into our careers, which is often the norm. I thought I wanted to major in hospitality, but on a college campus visit the guys looked scary (wore beards!) and I decided I wasn't ready for college. I joined the Air Force at age 17, where they made me an Arabic linguist/cryptographer. (An unusual first career.) When I got out, I majored in Middle Eastern Studies and loved classes on Tunisian folklore and the like. I expected to go on to law school, but skipped the LSATs (not in the mood on test day). Considered a PhD in sociology but was turned off by the statistics classes needed and ended up getting a Master's in Public Administration instead. I couldn't get a job upon graduation at the kind of places I wanted to work--Ford Foundation, Agency for International Development, etc. Out of desperation, I accepted a job as a bond analyst on Wall St. with a firm that had a connection with my grad school. I hate math, business, and economics but thought a few years of looking at audits might look like a skill to the AID folks and get me back overseas. Twenty years later, I am still a bond analyst and it has worked out fine. When I hire, the ability to write is the only must because an analyst is a publishing job and writing seems to be a hard "on the job skill" to teach. Any combination of undergrad and graduate degrees are fine. In sum, your daughter doesn't have to ever decide what she wants to be, in my opinion. Something will eventually find her and she will make it fit or change direction, perhaps numerous times. Some of the best analysts I have worked with had prior careers in odd fields. For example, a former actress was great at running high profile meetings. A lot of investment bankers have backgrounds in engineering. The joy is in the journey (as a headmistress in one of our son's schools used to say).</p>
<p>My daughter started doing art at 2. She would sit with crayons at her little table for ah hour just making pictures. Interest continued through elementary school. There her art intructor noticed her interest and got her a scholarship to attend the Saturday program at Carnegie Museum. She stayed in the program into high school.</p>
<p>We investigated the Creative and Performing Arts HS. Once we were satisified with the academics (since we felt she could develop other overiding interests as she got older) she could apply. She has enjoyed her HS years, done well academically, but never lost the passion for art. She spent three hours a day on art in HS, spent Saturday mornings in the CMU precollege program and took adult ed art classes. </p>
<p>By HS junior year it was clear that she wanted to continue art as a career. We talked to professional artist friends, so she is not going into this blind, but there is nothing she would rather do that create.</p>
<p>This is some of her work:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pghparkers/sets/1579510/%5B/url%5D">http://www.flickr.com/photos/pghparkers/sets/1579510/</a></p>
<p>I like the dress. Was it designed as an artistic statement or as a demonstration of her skill?</p>
<p>tsdad, </p>
<p>D wore it in a fashion show. She wanted to do something with recycled materials, so it was as much an artistic statement as it was a show of skill. </p>
<p>She had an offer from a national company that sells recycled fashion products to produce them in bulk, but she declined.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids, including the college grad, have a clue what they want to be yet.</p>
<p>And my H, at 45, has figured that all along, what he really wanted to be is a high school teacher, not a doctor, which he was. So he is a teacher now :).</p>
<p>I'm still working on the question myself. </p>
<p>I, too, am amazed by all these stories of those who figured it out at a young age.</p>
<p>Garland,</p>
<p>Isn't that what the fourties are for? I'd put myself in the same camp as you...</p>
<p>There's no rush to figure out what you want to do when you grow up. Sixty-three today and I'm still wondering among my future as a rocknroller/baseball player/college president.</p>
<p>Among our group of 12 college friends, 3 were totally focused on their studies and chosen professions. They would disappear after dinner for 4 hours and reappear to grab a late night snack with us. Two are now dentists and the 3rd is an anesthesiologist. A fourth received our only doctorate. H did not find his calling until after we were married. He was doing data entry in the clinical labs...attended night school at a community college...then eventually received his MS in comp sci. He truly found his passion.</p>
<p>D1, on the other hand, is heading toward declaring chem as her major. She even applied and was accepted to tutor inner city students. It's all good.</p>
<p>My son has wanted to be a Classics professor since his first exposure to Latin and Ancient Rome in the fifth grade. Had he not been at a school with a Latin program and a dynamic, passionate teacher to support him (she's now at Bostin Latin, you lucky people!), I don't know what his career goals would have been. Despite having a son who's known what he wanted to be for a long time, I am not a big advocate of making such decisions at an early age. I think college is the time to explore the possibilities, and not necessarily focus right in on one thing. We've had that talk with my son and told him, sure go ahead, major in Classics, but take other classes that interest you and if at any point you find yourself drawn in another direction, don't fight it.</p>
<p>My daughter is one of those that knew from the time she was three what she wanted to do -- be a dancer. She is now studying Musical Theater with a minor in dance.</p>
<p>Son is smart and more math-oriented. He went through a number of "professions" when he was younger. At three, he wanted to be a pirate. For a while, he wanted to be a Bomb Technician. But probably for the past two or three or four years, he's wanted to be an Engineer, same as his Dad. His dream job would be to work on "Myth Busters", but he would settle for a job at Underwriter's Laboratory.</p>
<p>Both kids, however, know what they DON'T want to do -- day care.</p>
<p>signed,</p>
<p>Peg
licensed day care provider</p>