What’s your problem?
I watched Deputy United States Trade Representative John Verneau speak this week at the Lou Frey Institute on the subject of U.S./China relations. His analysis of the interdependent economics of the two countries was well articulated and directed, in part, at the role of schools. We all hear about the need to prepare our students for a global economy, fostering broad awareness and the ability to function competitively among their peers worldwide. Mr. Verneau made one point in particular that could help all — teachers, parents, and students — to better focus this vision. He pointed out that the innovation we need to nourish can be boiled down to problem solving. Every career in this interdependent world is problem solving. The differences between career choices simply depend upon the kind of problems you like to solve.
What kind of problems do you like to solve?
I am certain no one ever asked me that question when I was in school, and I don’t think I have ever asked my students or my own children a career question in that way. I would venture a guess that few of us, as teachers, ever ask kids what kinds of problems they like to solve. We just hand out the problems. Yes, we try to make the problems “real” or meaningful by connecting them to something authentic, and we have an obligation to present problems related to our assigned curriculum. But it would not take much to go a step further and ask students, “What kinds of problems intrigue you?” “What do you like figuring out?” “Name a problem you felt good about fixing.”
Most kids don’t know their strengths. Some may have overinflated self-concepts because exuberant adults around them praise everything they do. Others never hear any positive comments. We all know a student or two who has come back to say that one long-forgotten comment we made had a huge impact on what that student did with his/her life. Asking “What’s YOUR problem (of choice)” could be the pivotal comment for every student.
The child who enjoys solving problems among friends may have great interpersonal intelligence and be well suited to a career solving mysteries of human relationship. The girl who figures out how to use waxed paper to make her bike stop squeaking may be destined to work with materials engineering. The boy who takes hours to pick out the song he likes on the piano solves problems with pitch and rhythm and may be a musician — or a designer of sound equipment. But we may never have asked them what problems they like to solve or what problems they voluntarily spend hours on when they are not at school solving OUR problems. Adults rarely stop to analyze the types of problems posed by our own careers or the careers/problems we know less about. Since our kids will inevitably change careers over and over, the most important question we want them to answer- loud and strong — is:
What kinds of problems do you like to solve?
We never have enough time to “teach” about careers (an old-fashioned concept, when you consider how many times people change careers, anyway). Typically, career discussions are relegated to a very 20th century aptitude test or a ninth grade guidance class. As teachers, we could do more for our students’ long term preparedness than most curriculum does simply by asking them:
What’s YOUR problem (of choice)?
