Yesterday at work, I sat down with a group of girls ages 9-12. I had printed various pictures of clip art careers, various pictures of families and friends, and various pictures of items I thought they would like to own. The purpose of this exercise was to have the girls look at their future and tell me what they expected. There were pictures of pilots, doctors, dentists, surgeons, politicians, and all other big shot jobs you can think of. But I also included, secretaries, teachers, stay at home moms. Most of the girls chose one of the cliche 'womens' job. this did not surprise me. We then moved on to look at who is most important to these girls. They chose friends, over families, pets over educators. After that I had them pick out what they would buy if they could. They all chose clothes from various top label clothing designers. None of these were much of a shock to me. Most of thees answers I had assumed to be chosen, but as I sat back after the exercise I realized that these girls in my program do not fully understand what they ARE capable of; and this was heart aching. I decided to implement a 'Career Women' program. Every week, a woman from the area of which I work, would come in ans speak to the girls. These women will be able to provide explanations to my girls about the endless number of doors they can open in their future, and what they should be doing to get there.
I really hope that having these 'Career Women' come in and talk to my girls will help their thought process, of ignoring the 'normal' life path and work towards something exceptional.
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