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One more question to ask at the school board meeting: “What are you doing to fuel my kid’s
dreams?”
15. “When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut assistant”
Jake Halpern did a rigorous study of high school students. The most disturbing result was this:
“When you grow up, which of the following jobs would you most like to have?”
The chief of a major company like General Motors
A Navy SEAL
A United States Senator
The president of a great university like Harvard or Yale
The personal assistant to a very famous singer or movie star
The results:
Among girls, the results were as follows: 9.5 percent chose “the chief of a major company like
General Motors”; 9.8 percent chose “a Navy SEAL”; 13.6 percent chose “a United States
Senator”; 23.7 percent chose “the president of a great university like Harvard or Yale”; and 43.4
percent chose “the personal assistant to a very famous singer or movie star.”
Notice that these kids were okay with not actually being famous—they were happy to be the
assistant of someone who lived that fairy tale lifestyle.
Is this the best we can do? Have we created a trillion-dollar, multimillion-student, sixteen-year
schooling cycle to take our best and our brightest and snuff out their dreams—sometimes when
they’re so nascent that they haven’t even been articulated? Is the product of our massive
schooling industry an endless legion of assistants?
The century of dream-snuffing has to end. We’re facing a significant emergency, one that’s not
just economic but cultural as well. The time to act is right now, and the person to do it is you.
16. School is expensive
It’s also not very good at doing what we need it to do. We’re not going to be able to make it
much cheaper, so let’s figure out how to make it a lot better.
Not better at what it already does. Better at educating people to do what needs to be done.
Do you need a competent call-center employee? School is good at creating them, but it’s
awfully expensive. Do we really need more compliant phone operators, and at such a high cost?
Stop Stealing Dreams Free Printable Edition 15