Planned Careers

Have you ever noticed how a lot of parents seem to pressure their kids into going with careers they may not even enjoy, let alone be skilled at? I never was, but that might be why I'm not making loads of money, buying fancy sports cars, learning how to trade stocks, and being a general snob about it. To be honest I don't have a real job since freelance work is not steady at all, but that's why I make comics because it makes people smile and putting smiles on peoples' faces is fun. Now if I were only a dentist and being paid to say that.

Regarding the subject of planned careers, a friend of my sister's lived in Germany when she was little. She even went to the German school for a couple of years. According to her it wasn't a bad school. She learned to speak basic German while going there. But because she was a foreigner she was unable to really fit in fully. Why? From what she told us in Germany being that they have, more or less, a socialist system of teaching where you were in a way destined to be placed into a certain field of learning for what career they deemed you would be skilled in. She was destined to not stay in Germany thus not fitting in with any of the cliques of children who knew what careers they were going to be pursuing. Now I don't know how true any of this is since I've never lived in Germany at all, but the entire concept of deeming what a child's skill will be by a certain age seems a bit hasty and harsh considering most people don't figure out what they really like to do till later in life.

I still don't know what I want to do with mine. When I was really little I went to Cedar Point and witnessed the wonders of roller coasters. My mind instantly told me, "Yes, roller coasters are a truely amazing creation and you should create them" Being the inspired six year old that I was I attempted to create them, on paper.

Unfornately that's about all the further I got with it. I could only draw stickmen in theme parks in vain hope of one day creating roller coasters. The reason being is that I eventually learned how much work went into engineering one of the contraptions. My mind is definitely not geared towards doing math and having to use that much math to design a roller coaster would more than likely get me sent to a psycho ward screaming, "PI! PI! PI! IT MAKES THINGS LOOP-DE-LOOP! PI PI PI! SPIN! CORKSCREW! MUWAHAHAHA!" and I would never be allowed to step near a roller coaster ever again. I stuck to drawing them instead.

(On a side note, years later my dream did come true and the PC game Roller Coaster Tycoon was created. I still play the first and second one to this day.)

Back on subject. The fact that Germany supposedly tries to figure out what a child should do by the time they reach a certain age it made me wonder how exactly they do figure it out other than by their testing scores. It occurred to me that maybe they start observing them as babies and give them a game of some sort to see how well the perform while playing with it. Perhaps the put the shapes into the slot game would be a proper way?

Here we can observe the average baby learning from trial and error. We can assume by this that he will become an average citizen and perhaps succeed in a career such as a nurse, a dental assistant, or maybe even a stock broker.

Next we have the baby who obviously has a much higher IQ and prefers things to be done properly and effeciently. From this observation we can assume he will more than likely be technical and engineer cars, create architecture that defies physics, and possibly create roller coasters. I'm envious.

This baby right here is a hard one to figure out. Physically he's stronger and larger than the other babies. Heck, this one already has hair on his head! He wants things done HIS way and he will MAKE anything work. From this we can assume he could possibly become an engineer like the previous baby, except he won't be as perfectionistic nor as critical of effeciency. Careers he may pursure could be a mechanic, a warehouse manager, a carpenter, and perhaps even a stunt devil.

 The last baby we observe is any controlling teacher's nightmare. He is what is known as a free thinker. If he can obviously figure out what you're telling him he should be doing is something he doesn't like or he knows it's not advancing him in any way possible he will make it clear - so clear he may try to take over your authority and deem himself more powerful. We can assume from this behavior that he will probably succeed in just about anything he wants to because he's thinking for himself. That doesn't mean he's stupid and jumps into things, not at all. The free thinker will probably seek out anything that he finds interesting and master what he likes best.

In conclusion, the mentality of figuring out what somebody should go into before they know what they even like thwarts any form of creativity. Many of the best inventions and richest people in the world never finished high school, yet they still managed to succeed. It's a shame I'm not one of those people. :[

If you're from Germany and can verify or disprove what I was told, by all means do. :)