‘When I Grow Up . . .’ : Career Plans Change as Kids Struggle to Make Dreams a Reality

For 20-and 30- and 40-year-olds, the question is one of life’s great perplexities, a mystery for the ages.

But ask a group of kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and you get answers. They’ve got it pegged.

There are no existential crises when the question is posed to Rebecca Ellis’ fourth-grade class at Noyes Elementary School in Altadena. Indeed, 25 students, who come from varied racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, are able to detail their career plans in about 10 minutes:

* “What I want to be when I grow up is an obstetrician,” says Arielle Daniels, 9. “I think it’s neat how they pull the baby out of the mother’s stomach. Even though when they take the baby out, it’s kinda gross. . . .

On the other hand: “Maybe I want to be a cheerleader for the Chicago Bulls instead. . . . I think it will be fun to travel around the United States.”

* “I would like to be an author of black history,” says Monea Bradley, 9. “I think it is fun to write about black history. . . . I can make lots of money. Then I would work at a hospital and make lots of money and I would be rich.”

* “When I grow up, I want to be a marine biologist,” says Mario Juarez, 10. “I have been to tide pools a lot, and whenever there is anything about marine life on TV, I watch it. My favorite animals are jelly-like animals. My favorite is the Lion’s Mane jellyfish because it is the largest and it is highly toxic.”

Other kids wanted to be doctors, lawyers, a chef, an engine designer, an artist, a writer, a teacher, a ballerina, a hotel manager, a baseball player and a computer programmer.

Let the 30-year-olds squirm in the indecisive winds of workplace realities, these fourth-graders know what kind of jobs they want.

And although it may surprise some adults--particularly those who as kids wanted to grow up to be cowboys or cowgirls--child development experts say schoolchildren of the ‘90s do contemplate careers in such fields as marine biology, law and hotel management.

“Kids can see marine biologists, lawyers and doctors on television, they can see the work these people do,” says Chaytor Mason, a child psychologist and professor at USC.

“It looks exciting to them. They’re being exposed to the adult world at an earlier age.”

In other words: Our children are growing up faster than we did.

Mason and other psychologists say small children initially identify with--and often want to emulate--familiar roles, roles they think they understand. A cowboy, a mail carrier, a police officer. But between the ages of 5 and 10, they experience a cognitive leap and begin to discover heretofore unknown possibilities.

Such as studying the toxicity of Lion’s Mane jellyfish.

“This doesn’t mean they will stick to their ambitions,” says Adele Brodkin, a child development consultant, psychologist and faculty member at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. “But they are exposed to them.”

By the time they reach high school, experts say, children become more focused on turning their ambitions into reality.

The evolution of children’s career goals is influenced and precipitated by a varying mix of parental guidance, newfound academic interests, pop culture, money and, more or less, what the kids perceive to be cool.

“Children have dreams of being powerful, successful, of living happily ever after,” says Brodkin. “In real life, they feel very limited, powerless. But they rehearse where they might be.”

Such notions are well in force by age 5, Brodkin says.

In an informal survey, 27 kindergartners at Sierra Madre Primary School in Sierra Madre respond quickly to the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The answers, Brodkin says, are typical of children that age.

Six youngsters want to be police officers. Three want to be firefighters. Two want to be nurses. A mail carrier. A teacher. Someone wants to be a dancer, an ambulance driver, a lawyer, a doctor, an artist, “an army man,” “a football man,” “a birthday girl,” a witch, a firetruck and a princess.

“At 5, kids are primarily playing through their ideas,” Brodkin says. “It’s almost dreamlike to them. They are playing with their imagination.”

Of course, she says, young children dream only about professions they can at least partially comprehend. Hence, the concentration of interest in police officers, firefighters and teachers. Few young children dream of becoming, say, stockbrokers or genetic engineers.

This is no big deal, though, for parents who would just as soon have their children consider careers in genetic engineering rather than becoming princesses or witches or ambulance drivers.

“Their careers are a long way off,” Brodkin says. “Typically, there’s very little relationship between what they want to be at 5 and what they become at 25.”

Barbara Wamboldt, teacher of the Sierra Madre Kindergarten, concurs: “None of these responses are stationary. They change from day to day. The children aren’t thinking about tomorrow; they’re into today.”

Apparently, by the fourth grade kids become more focused on their future.

“No question they take it seriously,” says Ellis, who has been an elementary schoolteacher for 23 years. “A lot of these kids’ parents spend a lot of time talking to them about their future. They already have a vision of what they might become.

“In here, we talk about visualizing where they want to be three, five, 10 years from now.”

Indeed, in Ellis’ class, there’s less talk of becoming witches and more talk about becoming lawyers. This is partly because, well, there’s more money in law.

“They seem to want to make a lot of money,” Ellis says. “They are bombarded (by advertisers) with things they want to buy, just like adults are. To be secure, you need to make money--and they know that.”

It is notable that almost half the fourth-grade students who were surveyed mentioned money as a reason for their career choice.

Says one 10-year-old girl: “I’m going to be a model so I can make big bucks.”

Mason attributes such concerns over money to an increase in two-career households and a modern-day emphasis on consumerism.

“Parents live closer to the line,” he says. “They probably talk more about money problems. Children pick up on that.”

Some of the responses are more altruistic, however. Yvette Parker, 9, says she wants to be a doctor “because I like to help children.”

Danny Ochoa, 9, says he wants to be a teacher. “I like working with kids who are 4 and 5 years old. My mom is a teacher, and she teaches in a Head Start school. I would like to be a teacher like my mom.”

Kristin Guillory, 9, says she would like to be a lawyer because “they make big bucks, and I would like to add more laws so California can be a safer and better place.”

Sometimes, parents seem baffled by their child’s career goals.

Arielle Daniels, the youngster who is deciding between obstetrics and cheerleading, says she thought up the ideas on her own.

Jan Billups, Arielle’s mother, agrees, noting that there are no doctors or professional cheerleaders in the family. “I was a flag girl in high school,” she says. “But it didn’t come from that.”

As for doctoring, Billups says: “Arielle’s talked about being a doctor for quite a few years. She’s a good student and a sensitive child. If she sees a child being punished or suffering, she cries. She feels their pain.”

Also bivouacking down her own career path is Colleen Martin, 9, who donned her first tutu five years ago on a whim and hasn’t stopped taking ballet lessons since.

“I would like to be a ballerina because I love it,” she says. “It makes me feel graceful, happy, embarrassed, tired, proud and scared.”

Kathy Martin, Colleen’s mother, was initially bemused by the lessons, but as the years have passed, she has seen it become a passion for her daughter.

“She’s been with it too long now for it to be some kind of fantasy,” Martin says. “We’ve left the lessons up to her, and she always chooses to keep going.”

As children reach high school, their career goals seem as scattered as ever. Some students become more pragmatic, others fantasize about becoming rock stars. In a major departure from earlier years, most of them begin worrying in earnest about how to turn their goals into reality.

“This is when they begin thinking about SATs, getting into college,” Brodkin says. “They begin thinking in non-absolutes. The future really becomes a compelling issue.”

“By the 10th grade, kids are thinking about money and status,” says Madeline Wright, who teaches a career-planning course at University High School in West Los Angeles. “They look at how people are treated in society. That’s important to them.”

But so are the basics, like putting dinner on the table and paying the rent.

In a survey of 25 students at Marshall High School in Pasadena, nine say they are looking toward computer-related careers, three want to be business executives, two pick law, two aspire to be pro football players. Other career choices include pro basketball player, video-game designer, police officer, probation officer, firefighter, nurse, architect, writer and professional singer.

“High school kids are trying to figure out a way to achieve the lifestyle they are interested in,” says Eric Dey, associate director of Higher Education Institutes at UCLA, which annually surveys incoming college freshman at 600 campuses around the country. “Often, they are a reflection of their parents. Also, society itself is a great influence--being materialistic or altruistic.

“Pop culture influences them, but that operates on a level of fantasy. It’s a dream state. They usually don’t take being a rock musician or a professional athlete seriously. They wouldn’t admit that as an alternative.”

Eric Olive, 15, one of the Marshall students surveyed, would and does--but with caution.

His dream is to play in the National Basketball Assn. So far, he’s made the Marshall High varsity, which isn’t bad for a sophomore, but he is far from playing alongside Michael Jordan, his hero.

“I want to play basketball,” Olive says. “It’s what I love.”

“He’s played the game since he was 4 or 5,” says Olive’s father, Leonard. “He’s an average prospect, only 5-10, but he has a desire to play ball.”

Apparently, he also has some common sense. After high school, Olive plans on playing basketball at a trade school and studying to become a carpenter along the way.

“I know the NBA will be tough to get to,” he says. “It’s a dream. Nothing wrong with that.”

Not as long as he keeps a textbook and power saw handy, enabling him to make one cut, even if he misses the other.