“When I grow up, I’m going to be a YouTube Shorts video creator,” I tell Amina.
My pretend friend raises her eyebrows and says, “But I thought you wanted to be a graphic designer.”
“I could be a graphic designer who makes YouTube Shorts.”
“When I was a child, I wanted to be a fashion designer,” says Amina. “I loved making clothes for my Barbie dolls. I had loads of ideas for fabulous clothes collections.”
“Why didn’t you become a fashion designer?” I ask.
“Everyone said only a few people become successful designers. Perhaps I wasn’t good enough. I should be sensible and have a career guaranteeing a secure living. So I became a nurse. I do love helping people. Nursing is a very rewarding vocation, but it just wasn’t what I really wanted to do.”
“I wanted to be a writer,” I say. “But, like you, I got this idea that it was sensible to do something safe, so I got a science degree. The funny thing is I found it hard to get a job after I qualified! Too much education for the available positions.”
I look at Amina’s stylish appearance – she made her fabulous floaty, multi-layered skirt – and say, “It’s not too late for you to pursue your dreams. You could go back to uni or college and get an arts degree.”
Amina nods and says, “I think I’m content designing clothes for myself and my family these days. And for my girls’ Barbie dolls. That gives me joy.”
“And I no longer want to be a famous best-selling author,” I say, “I’m content to write about unschooling and other family things.”
“I suppose we’re both doing what we love, but it took a lot of time for us to get here.”
“It’s different for our kids,” I say. “They can do whatever they like right from the start.
This morning, I was talking to Andy about the career options kids have these days. People asked us, ‘What will you do when you leave school?’ They expected us to choose careers they regarded as safe and acceptable. And we thought we didn’t really have a chance of doing anything different.
But our kids can dream big and say such things as, ‘I want to design video games,’ or ‘I want to be a YouTube video gamer…’”
“Or ‘I want to create an app,’ or ‘I want to have a handicrafts or art business,’ or ‘I want to be a musician and make music videos for YouTube’,” continues Amina.
“I want to be a YouTube Shorts video creator,” I smile.
“I want to be a dress designer for Barbie,” Amina grins.
Unburying Our Talents
It’s good to have dreams, isn’t it?
My pretend friend and I had dreams. Even though they never came to anything, we knew what we enjoyed doing as children, but are there adults who have yet to discover their talents?
Sir Ken Robinson said, “Talent is often buried, and we have to go looking for it. We have to create the right conditions for it.” He suggested there was a teacher in the late 1950s who had half the Beatles in his class, and he missed it. The teacher never discovered their musical talent. He had no idea that the boys would go on to be the most successful musicians of all time. That sounds a bit unbelievable, doesn’t it? But it’s true. You can hear that story in this video:
I think unschooling provides the right conditions for our kids to discover their talents. I hope it gives us the courage to encourage their dreams, whatever they are. And maybe it gives us permission and the opportunity to explore what brings us joy and use our talents too.
An Unschool Challenge
If you’d like to ponder the topic of talents and interests, you could do Challenge 18: Discover Your Talents. You can find it in my book The Unschool Challenge!
I meet up again with Amina at a parish lunch. We’re sitting across the table from a woman who says, “Hi, I’m Samantha. I’m a childcare worker. What do you do?”
“I’m a YouTube Shorts video creator,” I reply. I look at Amina and grin.
So, what do you think?
What are your talents and interests? Were you encouraged to use them when you were a child? Or maybe you never found out what you’re good at because you were too busy doing required schoolwork? Why not stop by and share a story?
I feel now that the internet access has changed so many things about careers. When I was at school there was a careers room with a filing cabinet full of uni prospectus brochures and we knew of some careers based on people we met. It was all very dry and boring. Subjects at school were dry and set like geography or history or maths. If I wanted to be a historian I would have to go through a lot since history was taught in a way that bored me to tears even though I loved learning about history in other ways. You could be a nurse or a fireman or an architect. I think school got in the way of passions and possible careers. I spent a lot of time learning about greek theology, I loved it, but that wasn’t part of the curriculum so less important. More of a fun hobby. When I went into a career I studied to a masters level and still found it hard to find a job since I didn’t have office experience. I had to temp to gain some and then sort of drifted into a career through that. Which was quite boring. I had the adults above me calling for safety. They grew up poorer so it was very important to them. They wanted a safe office job with a blue chip company that they considered safe. I think that its simply not how careers tend to work for most people these days. I don’t tell my kids that they can be whatever they want, but I tell them that if there’s something they want to be then they can work towards that and see what happens.
Willcress,
Oh yes, our kids have lots of career opportunities that weren’t available to us when we were younger. And instead of dismissing their ideas outright, they have our encouragement to pursue them. As you said, they can see where they lead.
It’s sad how formal education can turn an interesting topic into a boring one, isn’t it? The way a subject is presented makes a lot of difference. I didn’t enjoy my science degree, majoring in botany, but I love plants. Now that no one is forcing me to memorise botanical facts, I take a great interest in our local flora.
Thank you so much for supporting me with a coffee!
You’re welcome x