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Adolescents Prepare for Life After High School
The competencies for children become more and more focused as they enter adolescence; ie, knowledge of the benefits of educational achievement to career opportunities, knowledge of skills necessary to seek and obtain jobs, understanding how work relates to the needs and functions of the economy and society. As they explore how work relates to economic and societal needs, they may become interested in books such as Back to the Wildnote 14 (saving species on the brink of extinction) and Pack, J., Fueling the Futurenote 15, 16 (efforts made to reverse environmental crises). Older adolescents may become interested in exploring books about their own or their friends' cultural heritage that relate to economic and societal needs. Beihl (2002)note 17 gives the following example:
In Yunmi and Halmoni's Trip (Choi, 1997), Yunmi learns about the history of her Korean heritage when she visits the National Museum in Korea and learns "that in the 13th century Koreans were the first in the world to invent movable metal type to print books" (p. 9).
By reading about the contributions Koreans have made to the printing industry, an adolescent of Korean ancestry who has technical or design skills might become inspired to develop skills in the printing industry or to apply these skills to a current growing industry, such as computer animation or technical design.
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