Good Grades Grow Careers
A 2005 survey, reported in parenting circles around the world, asked what most parents wanted for their daughters to get out of their schooling. The answer was universal: to be prepared for a good career. So consider your girl's first few years of school as skill builders. They form the building blocks of her future success in the workplace. Make sure she has been instructed well in the basics. It does no good to have her lacking in the prerequisites for the more rigorous courses.
Keep up with your daughter's grades, plus the scores she makes on local and state tests. Have her show her academic prowess in whatever arena she can. Encourage her to enter math contests and participate in science summer camps. These days there are specialized programs for girls who are into ladybugs, spiders, and frogs, or snakes and alligators. Or perhaps your daughter is curious about lemurs or red wolves.
Whenever she is undecided about taking honors classes in school, encourage her to go for it. It is better to make a lower grade in an advanced class where she is challenged than to make a top grade in an easier class where she may be bored.
Expect your girl to try to make the honor roll every year. Teach her to respect her teachers and to follow their advice. They can help her with awards, honors, and recommendations in the future, plus they can point her in a general direction leading to her life's work.
Fact
The famous British zoologist Jane Goodall (born 1934) became interested in animal life at a young age. By the time she was ten, she decided to travel to Africa to work with animals. Her studies of chimpanzees and their unexpected behaviors were groundbreaking, leading to a number of books and films about her work.
Be sure to have your daughter start early in mapping out a possible career trail. Have her take an introductory prep class for her high school SAT to ACTs. Seventh grade is a good time to start. Every time she masters a new scholastic skill and drill, her grades will rise and her career opportunities — no matter how far down her path — will look rosier.
Essential
Don't allow your daughter to get overscheduled. Check her school schedule to see that she has a few easier courses. No girl can be in a pressure-cooker atmosphere all the time without blowing her top. One or two afternoons must be totally her own. You don't want your girl to burn out by the time she is sixteen.
Whatever job your daughter will settle on eventually — whatever good she will do in this world — for the rest of your life, you can take pride in the fact that you were the candle lighter in her life. Whether she combines raising her family with a career, or works intermittently outside the home, or forges ahead with a great discovery or a cure for a dreadful disease, you got her started and well equipped for that wonderful path. It was you who got her interested in exploring the depths of her mind. You passed on to her whatever greatness was in you and watched her magnify it.
The quest and love for knowledge that you instilled in your daughter will have many increasing returns.
