Children will only say they want to be things they are exposed to and understand. Looking at the list for nowadays, it still includes teachers, athletes and musicians, which they see in the media and might be able to imagine themselves doing. It doesn't include things like lawyers and computer programmers, which aren't careers children are particularly aware of, and even if they were they wouldn't fully appreciate. So the story here is simply that astronauts aren't in the media as much as they were during the Space Race and Cold War. Don't think it is anything to worry about - they'll probably change their minds by the time they grow up anyway. And who knows, by the time they grow up there might be new careers that we can't even imagine these days (I can pretty much guarantee that almost no-one would have imagined jobs like "social media influencer" and "machine learning data cleanser" when I was young).
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they'll probably change their minds by the time they grow up anyway
The poll was conducted on 8 - 12 year olds (https://theharrispoll.com/lego-group-kicks-off-global-progra...) so I agree that there's time. When I was on the younger end of that range, I wanted to be a garbage collector, probably because it seemed like it'd be great to ride on the back of that big truck. I might have gotten wiser with age.
At that age I was terrified of being an astronaut after watching Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks. I laid up at night scared until my father told me that the astronaut selection process wasn't a random national lottery and I had nothing to worry about.
And at 8, my sister said she wanted to be a rabbit when she grew up. We found the class assignment to prove it when going through our old stuff in the attic.
We had a Richard Scarry book that had animals dressed up as different professions. While reading the book my parents asked my sister what she wanted to be when she grew up. My sister immediately responded "a hippo", which was fine with my parents because the hippo was dressed as a doctor.
Now she is a data scientist, which probably didn't exist when that book was written.
> I wanted to be a garbage collector
I used to say that (from age six) to dissuade further questioning from dull adults. It usually worked.
I used to say "I want to be a junkie when I grow up" because there was this series of anti-drug commercials that would end with the line "Nobody ever says they want to be a junkie when they grow up" and I wanted to prove them wrong.
Did you achieve your dreams?
Not that one.
When I was 5 or 6 I wanted to drive one of those cute little dumper trucks on a building site.
> I wanted to be a garbage collector,
Did you have a poster of John McCarthy on your wall as a child?
A Shirley Manson poster at least?
" It doesn't include things like lawyers and computer programmers"
When my daughter was in 4th or 5th grade they had a "career day" in which students could meet parents who were in jobs they found interesting. I offered to talk with kids about being a software developer. The organizer contacted me the day before to let me know that nobody signed up to talk with me. I was a bit crestfallen. ;-)
I had a similar experience. I came in for a "career day" thing to talk about Software Development. I did not get much love. Some of the kids perked up a little when I said I used to work next to Xbox testers and watched them play games all day long.
I'm sure if you would have said you could make video games, you'd have a huge line of kids!
This was exactly the segue my colleague would use when speaking to school children about computer science.
I think this is just a function of younger children not understanding their career goals yet. If you look at children when they get to college, Computer Science as a major has seen absurd growth in the past 10 years. Google, Facebook, Uber and other tech giants are the hottest places to work. So I tend not to overindex on the preferences of 10 year olds.
You'd likely have had an easier time if you called yourself a 'programmer', I feel like the term was more familiar to me as a kid compared to 'software developer'
Sounds like the teacher may have dropped the ball on a learning opportunity in this case. I've learned that I will regularly teach my kids things they don't care about.
ooof :(
Heh funny you should say that. I started playing music in the age range of the poll... I'm more than double that age now and spent years playing in groups and after a brief bit of time off am actively getting back into it. (in fact getting to see one of my lifelong folk heroes just tonight by chance)
At the same age I also became fascinated by computers... and I'm working as a computer programmer.
That said—I might just be further data in support of your exposure theory.
Supporting your position: My daughters’ preschool, in the area of Johnson Space Center in Houston, did a video of all the kids saying what they want to be when they grow up. A lot of them said astronaut.
Or they are just much more intelligent these days and are attuned to what they want.
Do you want to spend months at a time in a soda can that can explode at any moment surrounded by vacuum? Or be a modern day bard?
I'll second this
I liked the idea of science, but I didn't understand at all how people end up becoming one
It honestly wasn't until halfway through undergrad that I really got it and decided to actually pursue it
Social media influencer is a rebranded beggar, we already were able to imagine that.
With that same explanation - i think if China's internet were more "open" we'd see youtube/vlogger higher on their list, no?
"Internet celebrity" is very much a known option in China.