<p>I am against “steering” children but I firmly believe in “suggesting.”</p>
<p>I would not steer any of my kids towards engineering because I don’t believe they have those mindsets. The only one who has that mindset and the skills applicable to it is my current senior and he has already rejected steering in that direction from his physics teacher, his mechanical drawing teacher and his math teacher. He said he thinks engineering is boring and not cerebral enough. I disagree that engineering is not cerebral but boring, oh yeah, at least to me, although I do love to watch those shows about bridges falling down.</p>
<p>My next son is in 10th grade and he has no clue what he wants to do, either. He is not on the Honors/AP track due to dyslexia. I could see him going into sales or party promotion because he’s so sociable and funny. Actually, the career I really see for him is late night funny man, which is funny because apparently Jay Leno, David Letterman and George Lopez are all dyslexic or LD as well. </p>
<p>My little guy is into science but who knows what will be?</p>
<p>And you can get a Bachelor of Arts in math or physics. Indeed, Berkeley, one of the top schools for math and physics, awards Bachelor of Arts degrees to math and physics majors who complete bachelor’s degrees. (Meanwhile, a history major at MIT is awarded a Bachelor of Science upon completion of the bachelor’s degree.)</p>
<p>The sets of subjects described by “liberal arts” and “STEM” are not disjoint. Their intersection includes subjects like math, statistics, physics, chemistry, and biology.</p>
<p>That’s ridiculous. There are plenty of people who love law or medicine. Some of them actually majored in engineering before switching. Others went straight into those fields.</p>
<p>There are plenty of ways to live off of the (possibly lower) salary from a liberal arts job. For example, don’t get into excessive debt from an overpriced college or university.</p>
<p>I have a daughter, and I believe in at least making sure her math skills are as best as they can be. I do agree with Joan52 in “suggesting” academic areas but in the end, the child has the final say. Even for myself, although my undergraduate degree is more of a hybrid Math/Computer Science degree, I was never an all-out pure CS major and never was an all-out pure math major (and never intended to be). I did not want to take the hardware courses of CS and never cared much for the real analysis, topology courses in math, so I basically carved a path that I LIKED.</p>
<p>@yagottabelieve Here is a very good read. Summary: Med is hard work, from pre-med to med school, to the 3~5 years of residency. By the time you’re done with your training, you’re 30+, filled with debt, and paying half of your salary to taxes and the half of what’s remains to your malpractice insurance.</p>
<p>I don’t have any kids. But I have to imagine I would at least push them towards a realistic practical major assuming college is for them. </p>
<p>The problem with a fair amount of liberal arts major is their is no defined career path. This means its up to the student to define their own career path which a lot of student either don’t do or know how to do. A lot of students don’t realize this till graduation. This is not an idea for a 21 year old.</p>
<p>I don’t have kids right now, but when I do I will not force them into any major.</p>
<p>But then again, it’s not completely black and white for me! I can’t just let them do whatever they want with me knowing that they’re going down the wrong path. To fix that, I’ll suggest a different major if they pick a stupid one.</p>
<p>For example, if my child decides to major in Psychology (hard to find a job without master’s or med school) and I know that they have more potential in engineering, I’d suggest that they’d go toward engineering.</p>
<p>^ So you’ll let your kids make any decision they want, as long as it isn’t a stupid one… like wanting to be a psychologist. You sound like you’re going to be a fun parent.</p>
<p>Personally … Mom3ToGo and I are “steering” our kids in the direction of their interests … and if they pick something with terrible odds help them figure out the wide set of possibilities in the field (ever watch all the credits at the end of a movie, for example, if one wanted to be “in films” (most likely thinking director)).</p>
<p>My kid is listed in the credits at the end of one of those movies. She was in the driver’s seat and did the steering. (guess I provided the gas…)</p>
<p>What about apptitude? Dad and I are engineers and assumed S would be. Apptitude testing freshman year said “no way”. He has no 3D ability, little pattern recognition, and zippo mechanical aptitude. Test said he should be a history teacher/prof or a lawyer; exactly what he said he wanted all along. He happens to be in pre-engineering at a STEM magnet school, but only because his friends are, and it’s a challenging set of courses, so he isn’t bored.<br>
Don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole.</p>
<p>It depends. If I am paying for their college, I will steer them towards something they like as long as its practical and will have a suitable return (for them) on my investment (e.g. sorry, no philosophy). If they are paying for their college (through loans, scholarships, etc.), I will provide them with information regarding their interests and they will be welcome to use/not use it as they see fit.</p>
<p>Not everyone is cut out for a STEM career, but that doesn’t mean you have to go and major in something dead-end like Agricultural Leadership.</p>
<p>I’d let them “steer” themselves in a direction in which they feel they can be successful and content. Whether that means becoming a plumber, historian, or engineer makes no difference to me just as long as they enjoy it. People have differing capacities and abilities, so I’m not going to force my own onto them.</p>
<p>It depends on what type of child you are upbringing. They might be talented in something else. What if they hate maths to the core, would you steer them towards engineering?</p>
<p>What an absurd question. You are either naive or gearing up to one day be a pretty bad parent. Your kids will hopefully do what they love, which is what you should encourage. Sure, give them advice and information, but they will likely ignore you (much to your horror). Welcome to parenthood. And guess what? Neither you nor I nor anyone else out there has any monopoly on knowing what is going to make your kid the most money anyway (I assume that is at the bottom on your “steering”) desire. I know many, many liberal arts educated persons who pull down mid six figure incomes and much more; I know some depressed struggling engineers. You can’t play the odds over a person’s life (i.e., odds are he’ll make more money as an engineer), but have to let your kid dream, whether it is to be an engineer or an actor. I’ve heard of a guy named Steven Jobs who didn’t bother to go beyond a semester of college at all and did ok. You just never know how it is all going to turn out, and its mistake to believe you do.</p>
<p>You never know what situation you will end up in, but the decisions you make today WILL impact your probabilities of success. Just because some liberal arts majors, college dropouts, and drug dealers may have carved a path to success does not mean you should make foolish and impractical choices with the delusion that it will all work out in the end. Your job now is to maximize your odds.</p>
<p>Yes, dropping of of school is, for most, foolish… But being a being a liberal arts major is neither foolish nor impractical. It is a stepping stone. Most lawyers, many large company executives and many, many successful business people were liberal arts majors. I find it so closed minded and wrong to suggest that only learning about numbers is practical.</p>
<p>You are right. It is acceptable to pick such a major, under many circumstances. There ARE some legitimate reasons to become a liberal arts major. </p>
<p>FYI, I would still have more faith in a lawyer who aced his physics classes than some sociology guy but…either path can lead to success.</p>