JCC My daughter's career

So my daughter is now 15 and needs to decide what college to go to. She lives in Montreal, Canada. She says she wants to help people - people in need - but she doesn't want to be stationed in the field for a charity organization. She says she wants to be a nurse, but she is so creative and bright that I fear it would not make her happy because her mental capacities would not be fully utilized.

Any ideas people?

 

Well, McGill is right there....

 

"Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the ******* Peace Corps."

 

JCC Moderator

 

I.. dont?!? What do you think nurses do, exactly?

 

nursing is great, challenging work. i don't know about making this decision when you're 15 tho. my kids change their minds about what they want to do about twice a week.

 

Well, but she has to choose the subject that will roughly decide her course.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with becoming a nurse, but since she's just won an award in art class and seems to be mainly interested in visual stuff I fear it would not hold her interest for very long. I would be a happy man if it did. But she seems to mainly want to choose it because there's a shortage of nurses in Quebec so a job is guaranteed - and she seems to mainly not want to choose anything to do with art because it rarely pays well.

I'm fine with anything, just want her to have options. She came up with the idea to post it here.

 

be that as it may i still think it's insane. i don't want to defend the american educational system but our practice of allowing, and in most cases requiring students to take a broad range of subjects at the university level before declaring a major makes a lot more sense. that way she could take art classes, while at the same time dabbling in some of the hard science and anatomy that would be required if she decided to pursue the nursing path. that would give her the ability to actually make an informed decision about where her passion lies rather than just guessing what she's going to want to do without really knowing much about what it entails. maybe she should study here.

 

I once wanted to go into the medical field....but the thought of being splashed and splattered with more bodily fluids than a niche-kink porn star turned me away from it.

I also tend to hate stupid people who do stupid crap. "You seriously stuck your penis in his stoma? THE **** IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

 

I completely agree, but this is how it is, so now I try to find as many options for her as I can.

 

hmm, yeah. is there a exhaustive list of subjects that she can choose from, or is it more like she can structure her own curriculum?

 

If she's going to be a nurse, she may as well just be a doctor. Otherwise, she may well run the risk of having to take orders from people that are decidedly stupider than her. That besides, it will make her more attractive any sort of charitable cause she wants to attach herself to later in life.

 

Ask her how she feels about inserting catheters, changing bedpans, and poking people with needles, for 12 hours a day.

 

hey, there's a global nursing shortage so maybe let's not try so hard to talk young people out of pursuing that career. there's a lot you can do with a nursing degree besides change bedpans.

 

The world needs ditchdiggers too...

 

nice equivalence, dp. super astute.

 

It was for SuperWatto, not in response to you. I was just being snarky, so thanks for ruining my snark!

Nursing is, of course, a hugely important position facing a global shortage (as are, apparently, actuaries).

 

oh okay, just bad timing then. i never know with you.

 

In all seriousness, I agree with Tom. She should take all her basic requirements, a few art classes, etc, for the first one to two years, and make a decision later. Making a concrete decision right now is silly.

 

The Canadian/UK education system doesn't work like ours. If I understand it correctly (my understanding is derived mostly from Harry Potter), there's no basic requirements now, decision later option. To continue in her schooling now, she has to decide on what specific course to take.

 

It's nice to know that even a thread about someone's child's future career options can be just as dramatic as a Senate thread.

 

She should choose to be an Auror.

 

She takes:
- Art advanced
- English advanced
- French advanced
- Regular math
- Regular science

In which, apparantly, "science" includes all the sciences.

She can still take an extra curriculum in science or math during college, so it's not all set in stone yet.

This system is very different from the one I had (in Holland), but I also had to drop certain subjects at that age. I've not stopped finding that ridiculous.

 

She has to do what makes her happy. Otherwise she will be miserable down the road. But listen, you make choices in life, sometimes you make mistakes. Its also healthy to allow someone to make mistakes. That is how we learn to deal with life. If everything was perfect we would not know how to deal with adversity when it rears its ugly head.

 

I tried to talk my son into engineering, but he's interested in finance. i have a lot of cousins who went into nursing. For women who don't want to go into engineering, which seems to include a lot of them, nursing is a great path to a solid, secure middle class income and financial independence without the expense and time commitment of med school.