PREPARING YOUR CHILD FOR THE RAPIDLY CHANGING WORK WORLD

Many of the futuristic thinkers in the world of work have predicted that today’s children will hold jobs in perhaps three of the major “job clusters” (Agriculture, Food, & Natural Resources; Architecture & Construction; Arts, A/V Technology, & Communications; Business Management & Administration; Education & Training; Finance; Government & Public Administration; Health Sciences; Hospitality & Tourism; Human Services; Information Technology; Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security; Manufacturing; Marketing; Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics; Transportation, Distribution & Logistics). Additionally, they will probably experience possibly thirteen different jobs within those career clusters over their lifetime. Gone are the days when a person started in one job, and retired decades later in that same job. For this reason, and for many others, we need to prepare our children for the rapidly changing work world, and we need to help them draw their live’s plans in pencil.

Anyone who has a gifted child, or who works with gifted children, has probably observed that gifted children often have many interests, and seem blessed with multi-potentiality, the ability to do many things well. While these characteristics will be very helpful, experts are also finding that other strategies help prepare children for the rapidly changing work world.

In a recent article in the Washington Post entitled 7 strategies to help prepare your child for the rapidly changing work world by Phyllis Fagell, the following ideas were suggested:

• Cultivate “big likings” -- an idea, a project, a life experience that motivates your child to pursue, over time, something that stimulates his/her curiosity and the willingness to explore, solve, or create.
  
• Teach your child to embrace diverse ideas and accept feedback, to cultivate intellectual humility, and to listen non-judgmentally.
  
• Free your child’s ideas with critical and creative thinking questions. Ask more “why,” “what if,” and “what else” questions to stimulate playfulness with ideas; have them consider ideas from opposing viewpoints.
  
• Expose your child to innovation by introducing him/her to museums, inventors, and inventions. Specifically, the article states,  “help your child browse websites such as Wired, Popular Science and New Scientist, check out YouTube channels such as Vsauce and Veritasium, or design rockets using the online Kerbal Space Program. Encourage them to enter science competitions, such as the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge , or read about other kids’ winning entries.” (I would add that there are websites and competitions in many other areas of endeavor, and these would challenge gifted kids).
  
• Use writing and language arts (and the arts) to help develop emotion regulation and empathy. Success in the world of work is measured not only in completing tasks well, but in getting along with others, and working as a team. Emotional maturity is a huge asset in the work world, today and tomorrow.
  
• Give your child room to explore and imagine. In today’s world, children are often scheduled into a myriad of activities (often adult-directed), which give little time for “white space,” -- that glorious space where boredom and self-driven activities flourish, and creativity and experimentation blossom. Creativity is rapidly becoming a desired commodity in the world of work.
  
• Finally, refrain from thinking of yourself as your child’s boss. Refrain from “helicoptering”, or protecting your child from adversity or mistakes. Refrain, also, from making decisions for your child that rob him/her of the learning that accompanies good and bad decisions. The self-regulation of bossing oneself sets the stage for future success.
  

Though many of these ideas seem like common sense, when taken in context with our hopes and dreams for our children, they become things that we can do TODAY to help our children succeed TOMORROW.

As always, I welcome your feedback and thoughts. Thanks for considering my perspective, and please feel free to share your perspective!

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