by Leslie Mujica
In the recently released children’s book, What Does Your Daddy Do?, by Joshua Page, Ashton’s fifth grade class settles into the classroom. His teacher, Ms. Dusenbury, starts the discussion of career week. The kids are really interested in it and want to learn more. Ashton knows very little about what his dad does so he goes home and says, “Dad, what do you do?”
This book does a good job generating interest but it doesn’t capitalize on the opportunity to draw the audience in. If the aim is to get the younger generation more interested in the trades, this book is a great start, but I feel it fell a little short.
Although the title of the book, does references a male figure, the book would be more successful if it wasn’t limited to what men do, implying to young minds that only men can be in the trades. Being more inclusive might be a better approach. Page’s book includes an “About the Author” section that states Page “has a true passion of getting the kids involved with the trades,” and emphasizes that the younger generation needs to learn about the vast opportunities out there. The younger generation includes boys and girls, yet Page only focuses on what men do. The only reference of a career woman is Ms. Dusenbury, the teacher. This goes back to the days when women’s acceptable careers were that of a teacher, nurse or secretary.
I love the idea of getting our younger generation more involved in the trades. I fully support workforce development and early outreach to open young minds to the numerous opportunities for great careers in the trades and be better prepared for the future. I’m very excited to see this effort evolve in the future. There’s much potential and lots to build on, and will end with a great sentence in the book to illustrate this point; “Most of all my dad gets to use his brain to figure things out and then does the work with his hands.”
