Take Your Children
To Work Day?
The theme for this year’s Take Our Daughters And Sons
To Work Day®, which will be held on April 28, 2016, is
Sparking Aha Moments. Parents in large companies,
small companies and government are encouraged to
bring their children to work that day. President Obama
recommends that businesses also invite children who
for a variety of reasons don’t have a parent’s workplace
participating in the event to join their company for the
day. Some businesses will chose to have special
programming for parents and children alike. Others
businesses will have less formal days.
While the Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work
Foundation® has specified a school day because they
want the program to be integrated into school activity,
some school districts may not support this and may have
scheduled testing on April 28. Other parents or
businesses may simply believe that a student belongs in
school on school days. In this case, I recommend
holding the day shortly after the end of the school year
(and before the vacation/travel season begins).
The Foundation offers program suggestions and guides,
and even a theme song for the day on their website
(http://daughtersandsonstowork.org). The foundation
offers numerous reasons for participating on their
website, and recommends an age range from 8 to 18
years of age. Of course, individual companies may
specify the age range for their participants. I personally
recommend starting at a younger age. Some of my
favorite advantages for participating in the day include:
Improving parent/student understanding and
communication.
Helping students to gain an appreciation for what
parents do.
Students meeting the people parents are closest to, and
colleagues meeting their co-workers families.
Developing an understanding why parents may need to
work late, leave early or change a schedule, possibly at
the last minute.
Potentially, beginning an early recruitment program for
future employees!
One of my favorite activities for TOSADTWD is called
What’s My Job. Motivated by the 1950’s and 1960’sTV
program What’s My Line 3, a panel of students is asked
to identify a professional’s career by asking Yes and No
questions. Once a professional’s career is identified, the
professional spends a few moments explaining their
career. The next round then begins. During the final
round the professional is the parent of one of the
panelists. The panelists are blindfolded, and rather than
saying yes or no, the professional displays a sign which
is read to the panelists. Students seem to enjoy and
learn from the program. A complete write-up of this
activity, which has been viewed thousands of times and
downloaded hundreds of times, may be viewed on
SlideShare.
Another favorite game is That’s My Parent in which
panels of 4 or 5 blindfolded students try to select their
parents from a panel of 4 or 5 parents by asking yes/no
questions about what the professionals do at work.
Sometimes all of the students will chose the same
professional as their parent. The student’s then pose for
a photo with the professional they selected and the
professionals do a brief one to two minute career talk. If
the students selected someone other than their own
parent, they then have a brief career discussion (or
perhaps lunch) with the “parent” they selected.
By - Ronald Shapiro PhD
Owner of Education By Entertainment
educationbyentertainment.com
1Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day is a
registered trademark of the Take Our Daughters And
Sons To Work Foundation®
2I would like to thank Dr. Margarita Posada Cossuto for
helpful comments.
3"What's My Line?" is a Trademark of Mark Goodson
Productions, LLC, Santa Monica, CA