flying_silverad
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- Joined
- Jul 23, 2002
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I have been reading about different TRF members going to college and different schools and it reminds me of something I would like to share with you.
This does have a point to it, so hang in there.
I was about 10 or so and had real hard time in school because of family problems at home and so forth. Anyway, they gave us this aptitude test in school to sort of help us decide what we wanted to do with our life. I was into rockets and planes at about that age and had seen an advertisement in a book for a school called Northrop Institute of Technology (I think) and i sent away for a school catalog. I was psyched! Imagine, a 10 year old kid setting goals like that?
So I take the test and then went in to see a counselor. I showed her the book after she reviewed my test and told her that's where I wanted to go when I was done with school, I wanted design either rockets or airplanes. She flipped through the book and then looked at me, "You really should set your sights more realistically young man, how about carpentry?" I was crushed, and really peeved. "She went on to tell me about trade schools in the area and that I should align myself with taking courses that would benefit me as such. When I left her office, I felt like the wind got knocked out of me. Never said anything to my parents either...we didn't really talk too much then.
In high school, I had another counselor fall asleep on me right in the middle of discussing college and what i needed to do to bone up and prepare. When he finally woke up, he asked me to take his lunch tray since I was heading that direction. Something inside sort of clicked and I threw it across the room and stomped out. Two days detention for me...oops. I tried to write about it in the school paper....they wouldnt have any part of it.
Mind you, I'm extremely happy as to the course of my life but it was only when I was older was I able to re-direct the course of where I wanted to go. When you're younger, you depend on the advice of the others to help set your course.
Moral of the story? Do you have kids? Do you ask about their dreams or what they think theyll become? Have you talked to the counselors and teachers that guide them? I live in an area of 5 colleges and trust me when I say this, I wouldn't give two nickels for some of the teachers and counselors in our school systems, college or K-12. Some of them just dont seem to have clue.
Thanks all for your time.
This does have a point to it, so hang in there.
I was about 10 or so and had real hard time in school because of family problems at home and so forth. Anyway, they gave us this aptitude test in school to sort of help us decide what we wanted to do with our life. I was into rockets and planes at about that age and had seen an advertisement in a book for a school called Northrop Institute of Technology (I think) and i sent away for a school catalog. I was psyched! Imagine, a 10 year old kid setting goals like that?
So I take the test and then went in to see a counselor. I showed her the book after she reviewed my test and told her that's where I wanted to go when I was done with school, I wanted design either rockets or airplanes. She flipped through the book and then looked at me, "You really should set your sights more realistically young man, how about carpentry?" I was crushed, and really peeved. "She went on to tell me about trade schools in the area and that I should align myself with taking courses that would benefit me as such. When I left her office, I felt like the wind got knocked out of me. Never said anything to my parents either...we didn't really talk too much then.
In high school, I had another counselor fall asleep on me right in the middle of discussing college and what i needed to do to bone up and prepare. When he finally woke up, he asked me to take his lunch tray since I was heading that direction. Something inside sort of clicked and I threw it across the room and stomped out. Two days detention for me...oops. I tried to write about it in the school paper....they wouldnt have any part of it.
Mind you, I'm extremely happy as to the course of my life but it was only when I was older was I able to re-direct the course of where I wanted to go. When you're younger, you depend on the advice of the others to help set your course.
Moral of the story? Do you have kids? Do you ask about their dreams or what they think theyll become? Have you talked to the counselors and teachers that guide them? I live in an area of 5 colleges and trust me when I say this, I wouldn't give two nickels for some of the teachers and counselors in our school systems, college or K-12. Some of them just dont seem to have clue.
Thanks all for your time.