While it is no doubt important to get the most out of the present while you are growing up, there is definite value to helping kids peer into the future and give thought to what may lie ahead for them. How can we create forward-looking children and adolescents?

First, kids need help to cultivate an interest in a complex subject matter called adults; yes, the young need to study grownups. Right now, all too often, children use each other as their exclusive role models. So many of them show little if any interest in adults aside from their compulsory exposure to immediate relatives and teachers. When you invite friends to your home, make sure your kids spend some time with them instead of automatically disappearing to their bedrooms or escaping with their band of acquaintances. Talk to children about adults whom they and you know with an emphasis on what they do in life and what kinds of values they hold.

Children also need exposure to career pathways. They should observe their parents and others at work. Mothers and fathers should always share work conflicts, challenges, triumphs, and concerns with their kids at the dinner table and while riding in the car. Let your kids share in your career. Give them a chance to serve as your consultants. Children who are likely to attend college should start visiting colleges early – even by age 12! If you have a friend or relative in college, try to get your son or daughter an invitation to visit the campus, attend some lectures, absorb the atmosphere of a dormitory, and witness some collegiate sporting events. Students who savor directly the romance of college life acquire a vision of their future that can help motivate and energize their years in secondary school.

Parents and teachers have many lessons to teach children and adolescents so that they can acquire the habits of mind that will prepare them for the future. Beyond the conventional academic skills and areas of knowledge, students need to be primed and experienced in a range of behaviors and insights that are potent ingredients of success in the adult world. These include the following:

Collaborating effectively with peers/co-workers
Brainstorming and coming up with original ideas and solutions
Understanding, rather than simply memorizing, what you are learning
Knowing how to cultivate positive relationships with those for whom you work (teachers now, bosses and supervisors eventually)
Having a sense of when and how to take risks
Being able to evaluate yourself
Staying focused
Thinking critically
Communicating effectively
Knowing how to prepare for an upcoming challenge or event
Systematic (i.e., not impulsive) problem solving
Finding the fitting niche in which you can succeed while understanding your own strengths and limitations
Parents and teachers can examine this list and then program experiences and have some discussions about these ingredients, all of which can be integrated into daily life at home and in the classroom. We don’t want the requirements of adult life to take any person by surprise. Therefore, a key role of education and of life at home consists of helping children and teenagers see the coming attractions of adulthood, so that they discover what life is likely to be like some day. We must then prepare them to be up to it and up for it, ready and waiting for that which lies ahead!