Gosh, it is so sad to see people who know absolutely nothing about teenagers and have somehow managed to forget how they were in adolescence work with teenage kids:
What about the girl who tells me on a daily basis that she despises reading and writing (and can’t do much of either) but plans on going to college to be a lawyer? Would it not be wise for me to inform her that she’d be wasting her money and she should also consider other roads?
Oh but what about the young lady who plays nail salon in the back of the classroom, and refuses to do any work? Could I not suggest that she get a cosmetology license and maybe learn how to run a salon as opposed to wasting her time and money in college?
I was both of these girls in adolescence. I would go on long and intense rants about the uselessness of studying literature and about how the only pursuit worthy of engaging in was the one that would be likely to bring in big amounts of money. I drove my high school literature teacher to distraction with my arsenal of inventive strategies aimed at demonstrating how much I despised her class. And if you asked me at 14 or 15 what was more important, painting one’s nails or doing work, I can guarantee to you that “work” would not have been the answer.
Still, I ended up teaching literature at a university instead of painting nails at a salon.
Teenagers’ main task in life is developing their identity. It is a long and painful process that, for a while, obscures pretty much anything else for them. In this search for an identity, adolescents try on a variety of behaviors, personas, ways of being. Their attempts to shock and outrage serve the purpose of distinguishing themselves as owners of an actual identity of their own. This is why it would be extremely stupid to take a teenager’s “I hate books and want literature to crawl into a corner and die” seriously.
The response to a teenage student that the author of the linked post is considering (“Would it not be wise for me to inform her that she’d be wasting her money and she should also consider other roads?”) is pretty much the worst response you can give to a kid at this age. If you get into a snark contest with a teenager, you are done for.
It would be very good if people who worked with kids familiarized themselves at least with the basics of the different stages of human development.
Clarissa's Blog 
True. It seems a very narrow approach. As long as the kids are aware of the different options (e.g. that the girl who does her nails knows that she could work in that field if she wanted to). When I was young, I wasn’t aware of so many options available and I bet few teenagers are. Also, knowing more about what’s involved with various jobs because enjoying a subject at school isn’t enough. (Maybe the girl in the first example doesn’t realise how much reading there is to do in law? On tv, lawyers talk a lot, not read) Still, pointing out options and what they involve is different to discouraging people from going to college!
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Talking to teenagers is a special art and those who haven’t mastered it shouldn’t even try. They will only get frustrated and antagonize the teenager.
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