LEARNING BY WATCHING PARENTS DOING. One thing I learned from Bring Your Child to Work Days was how little very young children understand about work in an office. When Annalisa was very little she spoke of going in to work with me “to play with paper clips” with me. And a friend showed me the toy airplane his son had given him so he would have something to play with with the other men.
Of course, these anecdotes provide some support for Bring Your Parent to Work Day. Young children may not have a clue about what parents do during a work day, but I don’t have a clue about a lot of the computer-related jobs young people do today.
I like your second paragraph reflecting on the computer-related jobs. I’d argue that jobs in the arts are equally opaque to people who aren’t doing them. I’ve gotten a lot of aggravating comments about making paintings from clueless people who don’t make paintings. The frustrating thing is when people don’t know that they don’t know.