Dylan recently came home with a homework assignment. He had to answer a poster full of questions all about him. What is your favorite color, book, food etc. But one question has had him stumped. What do you want to be when you grow up? It's a big question, a huge question in fact. Yet, we always ask it of children. Being adults with wild imaginations, we many times expect to hear the words doctor, astronaut, or lawyer coming from the mouths of our kids. It is crazy for us to think that children who know nothing of these jobs would actually pick them, after all kids interests usually are in what they have been exposed to and what they enjoy. Kids are more likely to answer with... I want to be a dancer, baseball player, and candy store owner and that says a lot about their passions.
Nate and I (secretly) are not worried if our children don't get flying colors in school. If they don't learn everything about physics and algebra, they will be just fine and we won't even get mad. We have intentionally never given rewards for good grades or gotten upset about bad grades, because the goal of school for us is to obviously educate them, but also to help them learn what they love and even what they don't. Yes, I want my kids to have a good core education...but if biology doesn't end up being their thing, that is fine with me. When it comes to our children's education we care mostly about how hard our children are trying and how happy they are. We encourage our kids to do their best in everything they try, and to learn the most from it that they can...but liking it doesn't have to happen. We know there is a lot of value in our children learning what their interests are (and what they are are not) and what makes them happy (and what doesn't). We believe there is more value in that, then there is an A on any written exam. We want school to spark their curiosity and to help expose them to things they want to learn more about. Hopefully they will find something they can not get enough of and not because they have another homework assignment, but because they are deeply interested. We love the age our children are right now and the passion they have. The way that when they become interested in something, they simply can't stop talking and learning more about it. We hope they always keep that enthusiasm and desire to learn and that whatever they do in life makes them feel the kind of passion they do for basketball, dinosaurs and puppies today. What I'm trying to say, is that when my kids get asked, "What do you want to be when you grown up?" I hope they always answer HAPPY. And when asked "what do you want to do when you grown up"? no matter what that answer is, I hope it is something that fills them with curiosity, excitement and happiness.
In the end Dylan wrote chef inventor WRESTLER on his poster. Go for it Dylan! You have our support 100%
