As I made my way over the Walnut Street bridge and headed to Penn today, I was suddenly struck by the number of young children I noticed. As I got closer to campus, I observed even more parents and kids; some little children dressed in lab coats, others, running behind their parents and still others chatting happily with their mom or dad. Aha, I finally realized, today is Take Your Child to Work Day!I remember this event, when it was still Take Your Daughter to Work Day. My mom dutifully took me to the office with her and let me help with things like filing and let me listen to phone calls. I loved it simply because it was out of the ordinary: I got to "see" my mom at work and pretend I was working too. Funny, how we are always en route to a job, from the youngest of ages. Of course, if I recall correctly, the day was originally instated to encourage young women to be exposed to different career opportunities and see themselves eventually fitting into these roles as adults. Which, to some degree is important because I would argue that we still live in a world where there are jobs or careers that are more open or possible for certain genders, by virtue of how certain industries have evolved. While this is changing, there still seems to be too much emphasis or reification of what students should pursue what jobs and little support for students who want to navigate different paths. I liken this to the Harry Potter sorting hat process; some decisions are out of a student's or family's control.So in other words, while this day provides some excitement and a change for students from their day-to-day routine, it doesn't remove the need for schools to be more concerned with putting more emphasis on authentic learning experiences and for being intentional about helping students to learn and grow in ways that make sense to them. So that, a day on campus with mom or dad, isn't simply the only way they get to try on different roles that are interesting to them. Any kids should be able to do anything and schools should help to nurture that.In the meantime - thanks mom for taking me to work with you. I enjoyed all of it, but perhaps the pizza lunch and meandering through the shopping plaza was the best part. Although, answering phones does come in a close second :).(I'm currently doing a literature review that draws on Constructionism that is really influencing my thinking about being intentional about learning).