Bueller.... Bueller?

I went and talked at Career Day at a local high school this morning, and by that I do mean, "talked." As in, I did pretty much all the talking. The only time I got any glimmer of participation was when I asked the students what they get nagged about the most -- and all of their answers were exactly the same... grades, college, get a job, money, the economy is bad, and the favorite, "You need to take responsibility for yourself!!"

Now, I've worked with lots of high school students, and you sometimes just have to take it on faith that some of what you say might stick somewhere. You're just outputting. I get that. But based on what I've been reading about brains and how they learn, I couldn't help pondering some things as I biked home.

I was thinking, Career Day is an adult approach to a teen problem -- namely, giving them the chance to think about what they are going to do after high school. Sounds great, right? So we get some well-meaning adults to come in and talk about what they do. The kids file into various rooms and sit down and there they are. Now what?

I felt like a person who was trying to play a piano by stomping on the floor instead of hitting the keys. No contact with the keyboard at all.

With little kids, we talk alot about "developmentally appropriate" -- which means, you don't hit a kid with stuff that they aren't ready for yet. 5-year-olds, for the most part, are not reading chapter books. So you give them materials they can handle. This helps them be successful and get to the next thing. You also mix it in with things 5-year-olds like, like moving around often and having time outside.

I felt like my presentation there today wasn't developmentally appropriate. These students' brains were not prepared for what I had to say. Or how I said it. In so many ways. They're thinking about the other students in the room, good or bad. They're thinking about when they can eat lunch. They're thinking about sleeping. And they're thinking, here's another grownup telling me stuff I need to do and think about -- just leave me alone.

It's not that they don't need to think about college and jobs and all of that, it's just that it needs to be presented in a way that they can relate to.

I've got some work to do.