Education and parents' dilemmas

A post elsewhere prompted this blog entry.

How do we help our children to make the right exam choices when they are too young to decide what they want to do as a future career? These are my thoughts:

1) Keep GCSE choices as wide open as possible. In fact only narrow down subjects when you really have to.

2) Remember that interests can change. I hated history at school but now because of political awareness and genealogical interests it has become a fascinating subject to my mind.

3) Some schools push children in certain directions and close off other options. This can be because the child shows promise at something and so other avenues aren't introduced to them or it can be because the school has a culture of producing certain types of people- scientists, sportspeople etc. It doesn't have to be a deliberate policy at all. To counteract this your child needs to be made aware of the vast array of choices available form the ordinary to the unusual. there are many way to do this but a good start may be the book "What Colour Is Your Parachute?".

4) Being good at something isn't necessarily the best reason to continue with it. Enjoyment, with a modicum of talent, in a subject may make it a better bet than being very good at something and not caring that much about it. We spend so much of our lives working that having an enjoyable career may make more sense than having a highly paid one- providing the enjoyable one covers our bills, pension and gives us enough money to enjoy our time off. Level of income, above basic needs, has been shown to have a poor correlation with happiness.

5) Losing ourselves in activities is part of the happiness formula. These activities seem to be ones that challenge us very slightly but are well within our capabilities. Through them we enter what has become known as "the zone". Our character strengths, rather then our academic strengths, can be useful to know for encouraging more of this type of happiness. (authentichappiness website can offer more info).

6) There are still no guarantees that your child may get to 21 and change tack entirely. Hopefully the points in this article will help to reduce that possibility but if it does happen maybe they'll help to make that change easier.