Is Your First Grader College Ready? (NY Times)

I remember people (usually friends of my parents who I had never met before) when I was younger (like middle school) asking me where I wanted to go to college. I usually said Hawaii because I didn’t know anything about college and Hawaii sounded like a cool place to go. In first grade, I wanted to be a pirate when I grew up. I can’t recall but I think I thought I could actually go be a pirate. I wasn’t saying that as a joke.

Asking a first grader what they want to be when they grow up or where they want to go to college, you really just asking what do your parents want you do to when you grow up and where do they want you to go to college. It’s a pretty pointless thing to ask. I don’t think that’s putting any pressure on kids, it just like playing “make-believe” as kids do all the time.