Can I Assume We Are All Afraid Of Growing Up?

Two Weeks ago we visited Mr.M's fourth grade class at Maunawili Elementary school. Before we started our plain vanilla, we asked the students to introduce themselves and to say one thing they wondered about. After they introduced themselves, we made three questions based off of the top three things they all had in common with their wonderings. The question that got the most votes was "Can I assume we are all afraid of growing up?"

I wondered how they would respond to this question because they are only in fourth grade, but some of their responses were similar to the things I would say. Miley said "Yes, because I don't know what I'm gonna be..." This made me think, because as a senior we are forced to think about what field of work we want to go into or what we want to major in college. Maureen asked the question "What does it mean to grow up, and is there different ways of growing up?"

I thought that this question was great to ask because there are physical signs of growing up but how do you know internally that you are truly growing up. What does it truly mean to grow up? Austin said "Growing up is when you go to high school and get a job." Another student said "... it's when you are going to high school." The definition of growing up to them is different to me because their definition of grown up is me right now, I am in high school and I have a job, but I don't necessarily count myself as a grown up. After they shared, I asked the question " Do you think we are in a rush to grow up?"

After I asked this question, I told the students how I was so excited to become a teenager when I was younger because I thought that meant I would be able to do whatever I wanted. In high school, I feel like teachers make you think about your future so much that they tend to forget about what's happening right now. Kylie shared that her older brother pushes her to practice hard now in order to prepare for her future in sports. In my mind I was thinking whether it is a good or bad thing because Kylie is getting so much pressure from her brother to prepare for the future, it might be her main focus and she might forget to be a normal nine year old. I think that we are too busy focusing on our future, that we forget about now. When we ended the discussion, I left the class wondering why we are pushed to think about our future so much.