Career Day 2009

Friday was Career Day at my school. This year my dad came as well as my best friend, Sarah. The way our career day works is that there are 3- 45 minute rotations with three presenters in each rotation. Each person talks for about 15 minutes.

The first presenter in my class was my dad. The kids were excited by the mere fact that he was my dad and he did a good job of explaining what a lawyer does. Luckily this year he did not have to follow the animal cops. The funny part about career day is that there is no really screening of the presenters. Some have really boring jobs and don't know how to talk to kids. Others bring free stuff and make it fun.

Unfortunately during the second rotation, only one of my presenters showed up. This meant the poor guy had to talk for 45 minutes. Even worse, the presenter was a guy I had last year who had bored the kids to tears and now he had the guy for 45 minutes. He seems like a good guy but he has a very technical job and doesn't have much experience with kids. He works in the Audio Visual field. He spent most of the time talking about his boyhood days in Chicago. He also asked the kids if they knew about physics and binary math. They probably shouldn't move on to either of those until they've mastered their multiplication tables.

I had prepped my kids before career day and told them to ask as many questions as they could so there was no dead time. Spending 45 minutes with the AV guy made for some pretty random questions. The kids asked him some questions about his family and he actually started crying a little because his dad passed away. The kids looked as shocked by his emotional display as I did. Whoah! The whole thing was getting painful after 30 minutes and we still had 15 minutes to go. I decided to have the kids teach him Spanish. Now that was funny! Really, the guy was a really good sport but just not that kid-friendly.

This career day I decided to write down some of the funny things the kids said. Enjoy-

When talking to my dad, the lawyer:

Dad- "Who do lawyers help?"
kid- "Lawyers help people who need lawyers.

When speaking to an accountant:
You work for Price Waterhouse Cougars?

When talking about college:
How many beds were in your dorm room?
What kind of clothes did you wear?

presenter- How long does it take to go to college?
kid- 20 years

presenter- What is a major?
kid- A major is someone in a higher grade
another kid- like a major problem?

Random questions to the AV guy:
When you were a little boy, did you make snowmen?
What does snow taste like?
Do you like multiplication and division?
Were you good at reading or were you bad?
Do you have a brother and what was his favorite subject?
Do you remember how many colleges you went to that didn't have mascots?
If you ever had kids, what would you name them?
What happened to your dad?
When is your birthday?

These were heard during presentation from an airport employee:
presenter- How many continents does the airport fly to?
kid-8
presenter- No there are only 7 continents

presenter- What makes an airplane fly?
kid- a pilot

kid- When it snows when you're flying, does the plane get heavier?

Why do we need to know a lot of Math?

My best friend, Sarah came to my class even though she wasn't scheduled and talked to the kids about her job at NASA. I had talked about her before and the kids had seen pictures of her before.

kid questions and comments for Sarah
- Are aliens real?
I noticed you cut your hair.
I thought the orange stuff hits people. (Orange stuff meant the large fuel tank attached to the shuttle)
You've been together too long. (about me and Sarah)

kid-Where you got that rocket from? (about Sarah's model rocket)
another kid- I want it.

(after absolutely no mention of California)
Have you ever been to Hollywood?
Did you see any superstars when you were there?
Did you see the Hollywood sign?